Patent ID: 7408704

Claim:
A device for an optically controlled micro-manipulation of a biological specimen, including a cell of interest, the device comprising: at least one micro-manipulator including: a cytotechnical instrument including a capillary with a tip; and a cytotechnical instrument holder having a drive for displacing the holder together with the cytotechnical instrument; a microscope having: at least one functional element with a plurality of objective lenses having, respectively, fields of view with different sizes, and a motor for displacing the functional element in order to obtain a field of view of a different size; manually operated means for displacing the holder together with the cytotechnical instrument over a range of movement of the cytotechnical instrument corresponding to a field of view of the microscope; and a common control element for controlling respective operations of both the cytotechnical instrument-displacing drive and the functional element-displacing motor in coordinated fashion, wherein upon changing of a size of a selected field of view by actuation of the control element, the manually operated means is automatically adjusted to provide a displacement of the holder together with the cytotechnical instrument over a new range of movement of the cytotechnical instrument corresponding to a changed size of the selected field of view of the microscope, thereby localizing the cell of interest in a cell culture under optical control and positioning the tip of the capillary in the selected field of view for an injection from the capillary to the cell of interest.