Cell technology employing femtosecond laser pulses

Practical advantages of using femtosecond laser pulses for manipulations in cell surgery were demonstrated. The use of femtosecond laser pulses enables precision punching of the zona pellucida of the embryo without damaging its cells. With the help of femtosecond laser tweezers/scalpel, auxillary laser hatching was performed and a technique of optical biopsy of mammalian embryo was developed, which enabled non-contact sampling of embryonic material for preimplantation diagnostics. Our findings suggest that about 90% embryos retained the ability to develop at least to the blastula stage after this manipulation.