| 摘要 |
A quantitative dispensing apparatus for cell is provided to improve the uniformity of a cell chip and increase the productivity by distributing a cell suspension into fine volumetric liquid droplets and simultaneously providing each of the liquid droplet including quantitated cell to a target portion. The apparatus comprises a liquid droplet manipulating unit(100) using electrowetting phenomenon, a sensing unit(200) placed toward a liquid droplet manipulating side, an exit unit(300) connected to a liquid droplet discharging portion(120), and a control unit(400) controlling the units. The liquid droplet manipulating unit includes an electrode array consisting of a plurality of electrode pads and has at least one drain portion(130) including a drainage path(134). The electrode array is equipped with an injection portion(110) in which a hydrophilic suspension including a plurality of cells is supplied and at least one liquid droplet discharging portion(120) discharging quantitated cells. The sensing unit optically detects the number of cells contained in each of the droplets distributed on the electrode array and is a digital camera(201), which preferably has a lens(202) adequate for magnifying photographing, converts an image formed by the lens into a digital signal through a state image sensing device such as a CCD or CMOS sensor and then inputs the signal to the control unit. The control unit analyzes the input signal from the sensing unit to calculate the number of the cells contained in each of the liquid droplet and applies a control signal into the liquid droplet manipulating unit to repetitively and selectively divide, transfer and merge the droplets, thereby obtaining the droplet including the desired number of the cell. The exit unit includes a receiving portion receiving the quantitated cells and an exit placed at the lower side of the vertical direction of the receiving portion to exit the quantitated cells fallen by the gravity to a target portion. |
