Magnetically Modified Soft Micro Actuators for Oocyte Manipulation

We have developed novel magnetically driven polymeric microtool for non-intrusive and no contamination experiments on a chip. The composite is formed by suspending magnetite particles in polydimethylsiloxane. In order to obtain precise and complicated pattern of magnetic microtools, a photolithography techniques has been applied by making good use of thick KMPR-1050 photoresist as sacrifice-mold. The novelties of these tools are 1. fabrication of any 2D shape, 2.softness, 3. no contact actuation, 4. mass production with low cost. These versatile magnetic mirotools can be applied to various functions such as stirrer, valve, loader and sorter and so on. The potential impact of this technology includes sample selection and separation, particle loading and immobilization, genetic operation, tracking, mixing and reaction techniques into portable microfluidic labs-on-a-chip, culture systems.