An instrument is being developed for selecting individual cells from growth medium and placing them in wells in a tray (or some other container) for testing or monoclonal growth. Traditional pipetting of a diluted cell suspension is slow and labor-intensive, and requires further processing to select the samples containing a single cell. Recently, a commercial instrument has become available (Quixell) that attaches to a microscope, and consists essentially of a robotic pipetting system. This instrument has certain manipulative advantages, but requires visual cell selection with manual control. The instrument under development would combine automatic cell selection with computer-controlled cell placement.
