Abstract

Microfabrication for Electroporation

Zhihong Li, Professor, Peking University

Electroporation, or electropermeabilization, is a significant increase in permeability of the cell membrane caused by an externally applied electrical field. Because of high applied voltage (thousands of volts) and corresponding harmful effects, existing equipments meet few, or even none of above standards. Microfabrication enables electrodes with minimized spacing, which can be used for cell electroporation with lower applied voltage, lower cost and more precise control. In our opinion, however, major research efforts on miniaturized electroporation chips seem going into a mistaken direction. Low cost, low voltage and portability have been overemphasized, whereas transfection efficacy, cell viability and treating speed are far below the requirements of practical biological applications. In fact, the later ones are much more important for practical application of electroporation. Consequently, all current available commercial electroporation systems are still based on the traditional technology. In this talk, some major issues in microfabricated electroporation chips will be addressed. To fulfill demands of high efficient in vitro and in vivo nucleic acid delivery, electroporation chips were developed utilizing microfabrication technologies. In contrast to the reported devices, higher transfection efficacy, cell viability and cell treating speed were realized.