PRECISION MEMS MICRO-CUTTING DEVICE FOR CELLULAR MICROSURGERY (SF03-013)

Current devices for cellular microsurgery, such as conventional razor blades, glass micropipettes, or focused laser ablation systems, are cumbersome and expensive to use in basic biological research. To provide an alternative to these traditional methods, UCSF investigators have fabricated an easy-to-use, inexpensive, and robust MEMS micro-cutting device that performs precise and highly reproducible cutting of biological samples. The knife within the cutting device ranges from 10-200 µM in length and has a cutting edge radius of curvature of about 20 nm. The MEMS micro-cutting device has been used to make reliable, sharp cuts of nerve cells including individual living dendrites (1 µM diameter), unmyelinated axons (< 2 µM diameter), as well as myelinated axons (5-10 µM diameter) from both adult and embryonic animal tissues. It was possible to select and cut specific neuronal processes within a crowded field of cells without perturbing surrounding structures. Furthermore, the device remained robust after 100 times repeated use without diminished performance or visible degradation of the knife surface.

Advantages of the MEMS cutting device:

• Inexpensive alternative to the use of lasers to harvest biological tissues.



• Does not require modifications to existing microscopy system



• Different edge lengths are available.



• The cutting device has a small footprints of < 1 mm2 and can fit into restricted spaces.



• Cutting devices can be sterilized and are disposable.



• Reliable, reproducible cutting



• Compatible with commonly available micromanipulators



• Cutting devices are optically clear, allowing visualization of cells and tissue during cutting.

Potential uses include:

• Precise harvesting of subcellular components from cells for study



• Dissection of sample from tissue slices for analysis



• Endoscopic biopsies



• Microsurgery



• Laproscopic surgeries



• In vitro fertilization procedures

If you would like to receive further information about this technology and potential licensing opportunities, please contact:

Sunita Rajdev, Ph.D.
Licensing Officer
Phone: (415) 353-4470
Fax: (415) 348-1579
Sunita.rajdev@ucsf.edu

Reference: OTM Case #SF03-013