How it works

NDX developed a product line of versatile cell and tissue acquisition instruments (UnipicK™, UnipicK+™ and A-picK™), which are compatible with a wide range of inverted microscopes.

Our technology is based on the improved aspiration principle that utilizes carefully controlled vacuum pulse to acquire desired tissue region or lift attached cells. Instruments range from manually controlled UnipicK™ to fully automated A-picK™ controlled with our proprietary software PIKCELLS™.

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Advantages

Versatility of our instruments ranges from single cell collection to tissue microdissection, including protocols developed for single cell adhesion force measurement and acquisition of regions of interest from fixed tissue specimens such as formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues.

The instruments can reliably transfer from nanoliter to microliter volumes and fit multiple models of inverted microscopes using our proprietary universal microscope straddle. Both UnipicK+™ and A-picK™ controlling software offer intuitive and self-explanatory program menus to minimize the learning process and facilitate sample acquisition workflow. The systems are compatible with 96-well workflow and may be used for most single cell analysis protocols. In addition, the instruments are highly adaptable to any protocols offering customizable acquisition, dispensing, detachment, and washing parameters.

Notably, all instruments can collect from any standard culture dishes and microscope glass slides using minimal consumables (DCUs), which can be reused if necessary, minimizing overall cost of experimental work. The instruments including fully automated A-picK™ are the most cost-efficient systems on the market, require minimal routine maintenance and come with a standard one year full warranty and up to three years limited warranty.

Summary of advantages

  • Cost-efficiency with minimal consumables
  • Flexible, fits most inverted microscopes
  • High adaptability for customization
  • High viability of collected cells
  • Versatility in applications
  • Functional adhesion test
  • Easy to learn and to use

Representative applications

There are numerous applications in the fields of cancer and stem cell research, neuroscience, developmental biology, -omics (e.g. genomics and proteomics) research, pharmaceutical science, lab-on-a-chip technologies, or basic biology. Any research that requires isolation of single cells or acquisition of subanatomical regions can take advantage of our products. Below are some of the common representative applications. Also, please see our sample videos and representative publications.

Single Cell Biology:

Some of the representative publications: Ref1 Ref2 Ref3 Ref4 Ref5 Ref6

Tissue microdissection:

Some of the representative publications: Ref7 Ref8

If you have questions regarding ordering, delivery, installation and training, please see our FAQ

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Publications

Ni Y, Liu X, Simeneh ZM, Yang M, Li R.

Benchmarking of Nanopore R10.4 and R9.4.1 flow cells in single-cell whole-genome amplification and whole-genome shotgun sequencing. Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2023 Mar 24;21:2352-2364. doi: 10.1016/j.csbj.2023.03.038.

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SUN XL, CHEN ZH, GUO X, WANG J, GE M, WONG SZH, WANG T, LI S, YAO M, JOHNSTON LA, WU QF

Stem cell competition driven by the Axin2-p53 axis controls brain size during murine development. Dev Cell. 2023; 58(9):744-759.e11.

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SHAJI M, KITADA A, FUJIMOTO K, KARSTEN SL, YOKOKAWA R

Long-term effect of sodium selenite on the integrity and permeability of on-chip microvasculature. APL Bioeng. 2022; 6(4):046105.

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LI M, LIU D, ZHANG J, ZHANG X, DOU X.

Aptamer-cocktail Functionalized Nano-microfluidic Chip for Enhancing Isolation and Characterization of Circulating Cancer Cells. Anticancer Research. 2022, 42 (9) 4345-4358.

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ZOU H, YANG Z, CHAN YS, YEUNG SA, ALAM MK, SI T, XU T, YANG M.

Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers. iScience. 2022; 25(3):103917.

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AMBHORKAR P, SAKR MA, KUMAR H, KIM K.

Technologies for Single-Cell Printing and Patterning. In: Santra, T.S., Tseng, FG. (eds) Handbook of Single-Cell Technologies. Springer, Singapore. 2022.

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BERNAL L, SOTELO-HITSCHFELD P, KÖNIG C, SINICA V, WYATT A, WINTER Z, HEIN A, TOUSKA F, REINHARDT S, TRAGL A, KUSUDA R, WARTENBERG P, SCLAROFF A, PFEIFER JD, ECTORS F, DAHL A, FREICHEL M, VLACHOVA V, BRAUCHI S, ROZA C, BOEHM U, CLAPHAM DE, LENNERZ JK, ZIMMERMANN K.

Odontoblast TRPC5 channels signal cold pain in teeth. Sci Adv. 2021; 7(13):eabf5567.

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BAILEY LJ, ELSON JL, PIENAAR IS.

Single-Cell Approaches for Studying the Role of Mitochondrial DNA in Neurodegenerative Disease. In: Weissig V., Edeas M. (eds) Mitochondrial Medicine. Methods Mol Biol. 2021; 2277:299-329.

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MA D, MA Z, KUDO LC, KARSTEN SL.

Automated Capillary-Based Vacuum Pulse-Assisted Instrument for Single-Cell Acquisition and Concurrent Detachment/Adhesion Assay, A-picK. SLAS Technol. 2021; 26(5):519-531.

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PFISTER P, SMITH BC, EVANS BJ, BRANN JH, TRIMMER C, SHEIKH M, ARROYAVE R, REDDY G, JEONG HY, RAPS DA, PETERLIN Z, VERGASSOLA M, ROGERS ME.

Odorant Receptor Inhibition Is Fundamental to Odor Encoding. Current Biology. 2020; 30(13):2574-2587.e6.

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