Electronic Design of a Semi-Automated Micromanipulator Cell Injection System

Transcription

1 Electronic Design of a Semi-Automated Micromanipulator Cell Injection System Asad Hameed 1, Nabeel Kamal 1, Saad Qaiser 1, Osman Hasan 1, Nasir Jalal 2 1 National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Pakistan 2 Tianjin University, China ISMICT 2018 Sydney, Australia

2 Outline q Introduction q Proposed Cell Injection System q Conclusions 2

3 Cell Injection q A technique in the domain of biological cell micro-manipulation q Delivery of a small amount of material Protein, DNA, Bio-molecules q Specific location of cells (e.g. Nucleus) Injection / Suction Pipette Holding Pipette Biological Cell Cell Microinjection Procedure (Microscope View) O. Hasan Micromanipulator Cell Injection System 3

4 Applications q Delivering drugs to a single cell for the treatment of diseases, like Cancer, Alzheimer s, Sickle cell anemia and Cystic fibrosis etc. q Developing organs, like heart, lungs and kidney q In-vitro fertilization 4

5 Manual Micromanipulator Cell Injection System Drawbacks Low precision The operator has to sit in an uncomfortable position for hours 5

6 Semi-Automated Micromanipulator Cell Injection Systems Visual Feedback Camera Microscope View Holding Pipette Micromanipulator (X Y Z) Microscope Injection / Suction Pipette Micromanipulator (X Y Z) RS-485 Interface Operator Micromanipulator Controller (X Y Z) Microinjector Controller Improved accuracy: The jitter in human hands is filtered out Operator sits in more comfortable position as he performs the experiment while watching the computer screen 6

7 Fully-Automated Micromanipulator Cell Injection Systems Digital Video Signal CCD Camera Image Processing Card Strain Feedback Injection Pipette Digital Image Processing (DIP) Algorithm Image / Video Motion Control Algorithm Motor Control Signals Graphical User Interface (GUI) Errors / Warnings Strain Feedback Signal Injection Drive Injection Drive Signal 2-axis Micro Manipulator Platform Motors Drive Signals Errors / Warnings High Precision Servo Motors (x,y) Actuator Unit (AU) Motors Mechanical Coupling Position / Torque Feedback Command Position (x,y) Proximity / Limit Switches Computer Main Control Unit (MCU) USB Interface Operator just points out the target cell and the rest of the process is automated using ML and tracking algorithms Cannot cater for all types of cell injection experiments 7

8 Problem Description Existing Cell injection systems are usually designed for a specific microscope or application Very expensive Cost: ~$100,000 Require Rigorous Training for the operators Access to and affordability of state-of-the-art research tools for cell biology and genetic engineering is hard to attain for the majority of schools and medical institutions of Pakistan Researchers are available but the equipment is lacking 8

9 Proposed Solution q A generic semi-automatic cell injection system that can be used with any microscope/ experiment and can be remotely operated using a high speed network 9

10 Proposed Cell Injection System Rotary Encoders Buttons and LCD to adjust the operating parameters Capable of moving the pipette in 3 axes (X Y Z). Linear Resolution: 0.5µm per step X Y Z axes knobs (Rotary Encoders) LCD (16x4) Multifunction Buttons Micromanipulator Controller Interface Micromanipulator Noise Suppressor Filter De-bouncing Circuit Stepper Motor Drive Noise Suppressor Filter Dedicated Quadrature decoding chips Microcontroller De-bouncing Circuit Dedicated Microcontroller I2C Supervisory Microcontroller Micromanipulator Controller Interface Unit Micromanipulator Controller Micromanipulator Drive Unit RS485 Transceiver RS485 Transceiver RS485 Communication Link Controls the coordinates of the cell holding and injection/suction pipette q Noise removal q Decoding of optical encoder signals q Processing of Inputs Drives the micromanipulator actuators Computes the stepper motor position. Drives the stepper motor. 1/16 µm stepping 3200 steps deg/ step 10

11 Proposed Cell Injection System Noise Suppressor Filter Dedicated Quadrature decoding chips Dedicated Microcontroller RS485 Transceiver X Y Z axes knobs (Rotary Encoders) I2C LCD (16x4) Supervisory Microcontroller De-bouncing Circuit Multifunction Buttons Micromanipulator Controller Interface Micromanipulator Controller Interface Unit Micromanipulator Controller RS485 Communication Link Microcontroller RS485 Transceiver Stepper Motor Drive Noise Suppressor Filter Micromanipulator O. Hasan De-bouncing Circuit Micromanipulator Drive Unit Micromanipulator Cell Injection System 11

12 Proposed Cell Injection System O. Hasan Micromanipulator Cell Injection System 12

13 Conclusions q A semi-automatic micromanipulator cell injection system q Customizable to any microscope and experiment q Cost-effective q Ongoing and Future Work q Making the system remotely accessible Unforeseen Network Delays need to be catered for q Fully automatic System Involves sophisticated Machine Learning and Image processing algorithms q Simulator for training users 13

14 Thanks! 14