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Cell Squeezing as a Robust, Microfluidic Intracellular Delivery Platform
Published on: November 7, 2013
Nontoxic nanopore electroporation for effective intracellular delivery of biological macromolecules
Yuhong Cao1, Enbo Ma2, Stefano Cestellos-Blanco3
1Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
Abstract:
We present a simple nanopore-electroporation (NanoEP) platform for delivery of nucleic acids, functional protein, and Cas9 single-guide RNA ribonucleoproteins into both adherent and suspension cells with up to 80% delivery efficiency and >95% cell viability. Low-voltage electric pulses permeabilize a small area of cell membrane as a cell comes into close contact with the nanopores. The biomolecule cargo is then electrophoretically drawn into the cells through the nanopores. In addition to high-performance delivery with low cell toxicity, the NanoEP system does not require specialized buffers, expensive materials, complicated fabrication processes, or cell manipulation; it simply consists of a generic nanopore-embedded water-filter membrane and a low-voltage square-wave generator. Ultimately, the NanoEP platform offers an effective and flexible method for universal intracellular delivery.
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