Team creates precision device for use in stem cell research

During an international conference on stem cell research in Hartford last week, mechanical engineering professor Nejat Olgac and a team of UConn researchers presented a significant engineering breakthrough in laboratory equipment that has the potential to sharply accelerate the pace of stem cell research.

The new technology, an automated precision microscopic piercing device developed by researchers from the University’s Advanced Laboratory for Automation, Robotics, and Manufacturing, and the Biotechnology Center Transgenic Animal Facility, dramatically improves the nuclear transfer process used in cloning.

The preliminary biological tests performed at the Biotechnology Center for Transgenic Animals Facility have shown that it is easier to use, more accurate, and more effective than current laboratory methods.

It also has the potential for automation, which could substantially reduce the training period for those who use it from about two years to a few weeks and minimize the possibility of human error.

A critical step in the cloning process involves using a tiny glass “pipette” – similar to a hollow needle smaller than a human hair – to pierce an egg or cell to remove the cell’s nuclear material and replace it with donor cell nucleus – a process referred to as nuclear transfer.

Currently, using a high-powered microscope and precision controls, the pipette is manually placed against the outer wall of the target cell. It is then axially forced through, puncturing the cell wall.

This method often causes irreparable damage to the cell, as the tip of the pipette tends to randomly vibrate during the process, lacerating the cell membrane.

The efficiency of nuclear transfer, which is measured after the embryo is placed in the uterus, is quite low (about 1 percent to two percent).

The new technology is expected to bring considerable improvement, especially at the donor cell injection stage.