Additive Manufacturing of Micromanipulator Mounted on a Glass Capillary for Biological Applications

In this study, a three-dimensional (3D) micromanipulator mounted on a glass capillary is developed for handling biological samples, such as multicellular spheroids and embryos. To fabricate the micromanipulator, we developed an additive manufacturing system based on high-resolution microstereolithography using a 405-nm blue laser. The fabrication system makes it possible to fabricate 3D microstructures on a glass capillary with 2.5 µm lateral resolution and 25 µm layer thickness. We also demonstrated the capture and release of a spheroid with the micromanipulator fabricated using our additive manufacturing system. We showed that spheroids can be easily handled by a simple operation with minimal damage using a cage-like multiple finger structure. Additive manufacturing of tailor-made micromanipulators mounted on a glass capillary will be useful in biological and tissue engineering research.