Since the manipulation of biological objects is usually performed in a life-sustaining environment, electrical fields or thermal gradients through the liquid may cause perturbations. The authors present a microgripper fabricated in silicon by a combination of bulk and surface micromachining processes that exhibits several advantages compared to previous reports. In order to avoid any possible perturbation caused by electrical fields, their microgripper is mechanically actuated. The complete system including the microgripper, a piezoactuator, and a nanomanipulator is described in detail together with manipulation of micrometer sized glass spheres. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.