Patent ID: 7776584

Claim:
A method for automated picking of animal cell colonies using an apparatus, comprising: a) providing a picking head comprising at least one hollow pin having an inside diameter suitable for picking animal cell colonies of a size that is smaller than said inside diameter, the picking head being movable about the apparatus using positioning motors; b) placing onto the apparatus a sample container having a base on which a plurality animal cell colonies held in a medium are grown, wherein said animal cell colonies have a size smaller than said inside diameter, and also a dispensing container; c) using machine vision and image processing to identify animal cell colony locations in the sample container; d) aligning the picking head with the sample container; e) picking an animal cell colony by aligning one of the hollow pins with one of the animal cell colony locations, moving said one of the hollow pins to a colony picking position in which a distal end of the hollow pin is immersed in the medium over the animal cell colony, and aspirating the animal cell colony into the hollow pin while the distal end of the hollow pin is held in said colony picking position; and f) dispensing the picked animal cell colony by moving the picking head to above the dispensing container and expelling the picked animal cell colony into the dispensing container.