System for Laser/Mechanical Dissection of Chromosomes

越来越多的疾病 与特定的染色体异常有关，例如 易位、倒位和缺失。选择单个 染色体G带可用于临床诊断 用于染色体分析和鉴定这些 异常目前，所需的染色体带被移除 用一个连接在 液压机械手，同时使用 配备100倍物镜透镜的倒置显微镜。的 针，取向大致垂直于染色体 感兴趣的材料都将期望的材料与其余的材料区分开。 染色体，并去除材料用于后续处理。 在一个正在开发的新系统中，紫外（390 nm）激光器用于 非常清晰地划分要获取的材料， 周围的物质。所需的材料， 用一个由专门研制的 计算机控制的机械装置。希望通过依靠 激光修剪掉不需要的材料， 当外部材料的剪切作用时， 用微量移液器将样品从残余物中分离出来 材料此外，通过利用传感器感测针尖位置， 物镜透镜焦点位置和视频图像，以及 使用计算机来确定机构的运动， 对操作者的手动灵活性的要求将大大 减少，从而使该技术得到更广泛的应用。

An increasing number of diseases are being associated with specific chromosomal abnormalities, such as translocations, invertions, and deletions. Selection of individual chromosome G- bands allows preparation of clinical diagnostic probes for chromosomal analysis and identification of these abnormalities. Presently, the desired chromosome band is removed by scraping it off a slide with a micropippette attached to a hydraulic manipulator while monitoring the process using an inverted microscope equipped with a 100X objective lens. The needle, oriented approximately perpendicularly to the chromosome of interest both demarcates the desired material from the rest of the chromosome, and removes the material for subsequent processing. In a new system under development, a UV (390nm) laser is used to very sharply demarcate the material to be acquired and ablate the immediate surrounding material. The desired material is then removed by a micropippette moved by a specially developed mechanism under computer control. It is hoped that by relying on the laser to trim away the undesired material, there will be less extraneous material than when the shearing action of the micropippette is used to separate out the sample from the remaing material. In addition, by sensing the needle tip position with the objective lens focus position and a video image, as well as employing a computer to determine the motions of a mechanism, the manual dexterity requirements on the operator will be greatly reduced, thus allowing the technique to be more widely used.