Automatic Operating Process for Zebrafish Embryo Injection

Abstract

Embryo injection is a significant technique in molecular biology and drug discovery for zebrafish, one of the most popular model organisms. Traditional zebrafish embryo injection is manually conducted under microscope, requiring challenging coordination of hand (to manipulate), eye (to watch) and even foot (to trigger the microinjector), and their respective precise control as well as being labor intensive. An automatic operating process for zebrafish embryo injection is proposed in this paper. Based on a micromanipulation robot system, the operating process integrates computer vision and micromanipulation robot control to realize batch embryo quantitative injection automatically. Successful rate of 93% and survival ratio of 89.5% at operating speed of 6-7 embryos/minute are obtained, verifying the feasibility and effectiveness of the process. Finally, the process is applied to inject a fluorescent material and investigate the toxicity of a dye, both receiving success.