Workshop ICRA2010...

Authors

- Xinyu Liu, Roxanne Fernandes, Andrea Jurisicova, Robert F. Casper, and Yu Sun

Advanced Micro and Nanosystems Lab,
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, CANADA.

Title

Distinguishing Healthy and Defective Oocytes during Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection

Abstract

This talk will present a cellular force measurement technique that allows for mechanical characterization of oocytes during microinjection (i.e., in situ) without requiring a separate characterization process. The technique employs an elastic cell holding device and a sub-pixel computer vision tracking algorithm to resolve cellular forces in real time with a nanonewton force measurement resolution (2 nN at 30 Hz). The experimental results demonstrate that the in situ obtained force-deformation data are useful for distinguishing healthy mouse oocytes from those with aging-induced cellular defects. Biomembrane and cytoskeleton structures of the healthy and defective oocytes are also investigated to correlate the measured subtle mechanical difference to the cellular structure changes. The technique represents a promising means to provide a useful cue for oocyte quality assessment during clinical ICSI.

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Bio of the speaker

Yu Sun is an associate professor at the University of Toronto (UofT). He is a McLean Senior Fellow at UofT and the Canada Research Chair in Micro and Nano Engineering Systems. His Ph.D. was in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2003. His Advanced Micro and Nanosystems Laboratory specializes in the manipulation and characterization of single cells, biomolecules, and nanomaterials using MEMS and micro-nanorobotics approaches.

Homepage: http://www.mie.utoronto.ca/faculty/sun/