Direct nano-injection method by nanoprobe insertion based on E-SEM nanorobotic manipulation under hybrid microscope

This paper presents a novel nano-injection method by nanoprobe insertion based on environmental-scanning electron microscope (E-SEM) under hybrid microscope. The hybrid microscope is designed to combine the optical microscope (OM) and E-SEM to realize biological specimen analysis by optical imaging including fluorescent imaging, and nano-scale manipulation by E-SEM imaging. Based on the bio-nano manipulation system, we propose a nano-injection method by nanoprobe insertion. The nanoprobe is designed to have a sharp tip to insert the probe into biological specimen. It is fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) process. The nano-scale size is important for minimal damage to biological specimen. The Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is used as a target biological specimen, which is one of the important model organism for diseases analysis. The nano-injection technique is needed to transport fluorescent materials or specific biological organism into specific cell for in-vivo experiment. The proposed system is considered to be important as future nano-surgery system for life innovation using model organism.