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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Cell Squeezing as a Robust, Microfluidic Intracellular Delivery Platform
Published on: November 7, 2013
Microfluidic generation of transient cell volume exchange for convectively driven intracellular delivery of large
Anna Liu1, Muhymin Islam2, Nicholas Stone2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Abstract:
Efficient intracellular delivery of target macromolecules remains a major obstacle in cell engineering and other biomedical applications. We discovered a unique cell biophysical phenomenon of transient cell volume exchange by using microfluidics to rapidly and repeatedly compress cells. This behavior consists of brief, mechanically induced cell volume loss followed by rapid volume recovery. We harness this behavior for high-throughput, convective intracellular delivery of large polysaccharides (2000 kDa), particles (100 nm), and plasmids while maintaining high cell viability. Successful proof of concept experiments in transfection and intracellular labeling demonstrated potential to overcome the most prohibitive challenges in intracellular delivery for cell engineering.
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