When the marvels of modern biological research are presented in the media, one image almost always appears: a person in a laboratory using a micropipette. This small but ubiquitous device has evolved into one of the icons of modern biotechnology, molecular biology, gene therapy, stem-cell technology and cloning. The modern micropipette has achieved such high visibility for obvious reasons: it i...

The measurement of small amounts of liquids is very important in fields like, health, chemistry, microbiology and genetics. The most common used instruments for delivery of liquids, in the order of the microliter, are micropipettes or piston pipettes, of fixed or variable volume, with positive or air displacement operation. The method used in the calibration of micropipettes is the gravimetric ...

Fluid force microscopy combines the positional accuracy and force sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with nanofluidics via a microchanneled cantilever. However, adequate loading and cleaning procedures for such AFM micropipettes are required for various application situations. Here, a new frontloading procedure is described for an AFM micropipette functioning as a force- and pressu...

Microinjection is a promising tool for microdroplet generation, while the microinjection for microdroplets generation still remains a challenging issue due to the Laplace pressure at the micropipette opening. Here, we apply a simple and robust substrate-contacting microinjection method to microdroplet generation, presenting a size-adjustable microdroplets generation method based on a critical i...

The Cover Feature depicts the schematic of micropipette apparatus along with electrolytically induced facilitated ion transfer process as well an example differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). This is overlaid onto a photo Newfoundland coast at sunset. More information can be found in Aricle by Q. Jiang et al.

background: successful embryo transfer (et) technique is a fateful step of all efforts to achieve live births from in vitro produced embryos in assisted reproductive techniques or in knockout, transgenic or cloned animal projects. small reproductive tract of mice and limitation of current techniques may not well satisfy the requirements for mass production of genetically modified mice. genetic ...

The mechanical behavior of living cells is studied with micropipette suction in which the surface of a cell is aspirated into a small glass tube while tracking the leading edge of its surface. Such edges can be tracked in a light microscope to an accuracy of +/-25 nm and suction pressures as small as 0.1-0.2 pN/microm2 can be imposed on the cell. Both soft cells, such as neutrophils and red cel...