Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39397017›Full record

ArticleNature communications2024

Robotic microinjection enables large-scale transgenic studies of Caenorhabditis elegans.

Peng Pan, Michael Zoberman, Pengsong Zhang, Sharanja Premachandran, Sanjana Bhatnagar, Pallavi P Pilaka-Akella, William Sun, Chengyin Li, Charlotte Martin, Pengfei Xu and 16 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. A pilot study for whole proteome tagging inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  7. Lab on an end: Micromanipulation using the acoustohydrodynamic pillar array as an end effector.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  8. WormTagDB: A Systematic Survey of Endogenously Tagged Proteins inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025
    Article
  9. Systematic optimization ofBiochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025
    Article
  10. Automated Platforms inMicromachines · 2025
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

26 authors.

Peng PanDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Michael ZobermanDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Pengsong ZhangDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Sharanja PremachandranDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Sanjana BhatnagarDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Pallavi P Pilaka-AkellaDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
William SunUpper Canada College, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Chengyin LiDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-8543-3419
Charlotte MartinDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Pengfei XuDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-3414-4662
Zefang ZhangDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Ryan LiDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Wesley HungLunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Ave, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-8488-7638
Hua TangDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Kailynn MacGillivrayDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0009-0009-2068-0481
Bin YuDevelopmental and Stem Cell Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Runze ZuoDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Karinna PeDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Zhen QinDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-4370-2374
Shaojia WangDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Ang LiDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-6431-9796
W Brent DerryDevelopmental and Stem Cell Biology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-1977-8475
Mei ZhenLunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, 600 University Ave, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-0086-9622
Arneet L SaltzmanDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-5827-3322
John A CalarcoDepartment of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. john.calarco@utoronto.ca.ORCID 0000-0002-2197-7801
Xinyu LiuDepartment of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. xyliu@mie.utoronto.ca.ORCID 0000-0001-5705-9765

Funding

Canada Foundation for Innovation (Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation) JELF-38428Gouvernement du Canada | Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Instituts de Recherche en Santé du Canada) 389077Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles et en Génie du Canada) RGPIN-2017-06374Gouvernement du Canada | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Conseil de Recherches en Sciences Naturelles et en Génie du Canada) RGPIN-2022-05039
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is widely employed as a model organism to study basic biological mechanisms. However, transgenic C. elegans are generated by manual injection, which remains low-throughput and labor-intensive, limiting the scope of approaches benefitting from large-scale transgenesis. Here, we report a robotic microinjection system, integrating a microfluidic device capable of reliable worm immobilization, transfer, and rotation, for high-speed injection of C. elegans. The robotic system provides an injection speed 2-3 times faster than that of experts with 7-22 years of experience while maintaining comparable injection quality and only limited trials needed by users to become proficient. We further employ our system in a large-scale reverse genetic screen using multiplexed alternative splicing reporters, and find that the TDP-1 RNA-binding protein regulates alternative splicing of zoo-1 mRNA, which encodes variants of the zonula occludens tight junction proteins. With its high speed, high accuracy, and high efficiency in worm injection, this robotic system shows great potential for high-throughput transgenic studies of C. elegans.

Indexed as

Animals, Genetically ModifiedCaenorhabditis elegansCaenorhabditis elegans ProteinsMicroinjectionsRoboticsAlternative SplicingAnimalsRNA-Binding ProteinsRNA, MessengerCaenorhabditis elegans ProteinsRNA-Binding ProteinsRNA, Messenger

Identifiers

PMID39397017
PMCPMC11471809

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.