Pick & place

The classic method of handling C. elegans consist on an expert picking them with a “platinum-wire-pick”. This pick is burned in a bunsen lighter and then used to collect some agar. By placing the tip with the agar over a nematode it attachs to it which allows the specialist to carry and place it just by rubbing the tip on the new agar.

This video shows the process.

To automate the process a 3 axis cartesian manipulator has been developed that uses computer vision to track the nematodes and pick them.