Development of Micro-Grippers for Tissue and Cell Manipulation with Direct Morphological Comparison
Rossana Cecchi,
Matteo Verotti,
Roberto Capata,
Alden Dochshanov,
Giovanni Battista Broggiato,
Rocco Crescenzi,
Marco Balucani,
Stefano Natali,
Giovanna Razzano,
Franco Lucchese,
Alvise Bagolini,
Pierluigi Bellutti,
Enrico Sciubba,
Nicola P. Belfiore
Affiliations
Rossana Cecchi
Section of Forensic Medicine of the Department of Histological, Forensic & Orthopedic Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5-00185 Roma, Italy
Matteo Verotti
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Roberto Capata
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Alden Dochshanov
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Giovanni Battista Broggiato
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Rocco Crescenzi
Department of Information Engineering, Electronic and Telecommunications, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Marco Balucani
Department of Information Engineering, Electronic and Telecommunications, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Stefano Natali
Department of Chemical Engineering Materials Environment, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Giovanna Razzano
Department of Law, Philosophy and Economic Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro, 5-00185 Roma, Italy
Franco Lucchese
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via degli Apuli, 1-00185 Roma, Italy
Alvise Bagolini
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Micro Nano Facility (MNF), Via S. Croce, 77-38122 Trento, Italy
Pierluigi Bellutti
Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Micro Nano Facility (MNF), Via S. Croce, 77-38122 Trento, Italy
Enrico Sciubba
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Nicola P. Belfiore
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana, 18-00184 Roma, Italy
Although tissue and cell manipulation nowadays is a common task in biomedical analysis, there are still many different ways to accomplish it, most of which are still not sufficiently general, inexpensive, accurate, efficient or effective. Several problems arise both for in vivo or in vitro analysis, such as the maximum overall size of the device and the gripper jaws (like in minimally-invasive open biopsy) or very limited manipulating capability, degrees of freedom or dexterity (like in tissues or cell-handling operations). This paper presents a new approach to tissue and cell manipulation, which employs a conceptually new conjugate surfaces flexure hinge (CSFH) silicon MEMS-based technology micro-gripper that solves most of the above-mentioned problems. The article describes all of the phases of the development, including topology conception, structural design, simulation, construction, actuation testing and in vitro observation. The latter phase deals with the assessment of the function capability, which consists of taking a series of in vitro images by optical microscopy. They offer a direct morphological comparison between the gripper and a variety of tissues.
