Development of a Coaxial Multipoint Irradiation Microscope for Single-Cell Screening

Abstract

In advanced medical fields such as regenerative medicine and immunotherapy, it is necessary to detect and separate specific cells based on their predetermined characteristics, a technique called single-cell screening. Previously, manually identifying individual cells of interest in an image required significant human labor and time. To improve efficiency, this study coaxially mounted a multi-point irradiation optical system and an observation microscope while applying multi-point light irradiation to a photo-crosslinkable hydrogel. The shape accuracy of the photocrosslinkable hydrogel was confirmed to be accurate enough to capture the desired cells, thus streamlining the single-cell screening process.