Microsystems and microfluidic device for single oocyte transportation and trapping: Toward the automation of in vitro fertilising

In vitro fertilising (IVF) probably belongs to the most exciting subjects of research, not only for human assisted reproduction but also for veterinary medicine. Among the various steps of gamete manipulation, the determination of the cell to be fertilised is perhaps the most critical. Up to now, the choice of the oocyte is made using subjective criteria. It is generally the results of a visual estimation of the morphological properties of the cell. In this paper, we describe our first studies concerning the fabrication of a micro-machined lab-on-chip devoted to the analysis of the cells to be fertilised. The overall idea is to end with a system able to capture the cell on the lab-on-chip surface, to transport it to different analysis stages, and to establish an objective catalogue of the oocyte characteristics. The first issue that must be addressed is capturing, transportating and trapping a single cell at different locations on the chip surface. In this article, we present some of the silicon microsystems used for the capture and the transportation of a single oocyte. We also present a lab-on-chip concept, which exploits the microfluidic technology in order to accurately trap the cell at the desired position.