Microfluidic generation of transient cell volume exchange for convectively driven intracellular delivery of large macromolecules

• DOI: 10.1016/j.mattod.2018.03.002
• Publication Date: 2018-04-17T13:10:20Z
• Authors: Anna Liu; Muhymin Islam; Nicholas Stone; Vikram Varadarajan; Jenny Jeong; Samuel Bowie; Peng Qiu; Edmund K. Waller; Alexander Alexeev; Todd Sulchek
• Keywords: Transient (computer programming)

Efficient intracellular delivery of target macromolecules remains a major obstacle in cell engineering and other biomedical applications. We discovered unique biophysical phenomenon transient volume exchange by using microfluidics to rapidly repeatedly compress cells. This behavior consists brief, mechanically induced loss followed rapid recovery. harness this for high-throughput, convective large polysaccharides (2000 kDa), particles (100 nm), plasmids while maintaining high viability. Successful proof concept experiments transfection labeling demonstrated potential overcome the most prohibitive challenges engineering.