title: Inkjet-like printing of single-cells.
abstract: Cell sorting and separation techniques are essential tools for cell biology research and for many diagnostic and therapeutic applications. For many of these applications, it is imperative that heterogeneous populations of cells are segregated according to their cell type and that individual cells can be isolated and analysed. We present a novel technique to isolate single cells encapsulated in a picolitre sized droplet that are then deposited by inkjet-like printing at defined locations for downstream genomic analysis. The single-cell-manipulator (SCM) developed for this purpose consists of a dispenser chip to print cells contained in a free flying droplet, a computer vision system to detect single-cells inside the dispenser chip prior to printing, and appropriate automation equipment to print single-cells onto defined locations on a substrate. This technique is spatially dynamic, enabling cell printing on a wide range of commonly used substrates such as microscope slides, membranes and microtiter plates. Demonstration experiments performed using the SCM resulted in a printing efficiency of 87% for polystyrene microbeads of 10 μm size. When the SCM was applied to a cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), a printing efficiency of 87% was observed and a post-SCM cell viability rate of 75% was achieved.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for MEMS Applications, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Azmi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yusof
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Keegan
authors.forename: Cathy D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Spillane
authors.forename: Orla M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Sheils
authors.forename: Cara M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: O'Leary
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zengerle
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koltay
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D002470:Cell Survival; D001330:Electronic Data Processing; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans