Electroporation is one of the most important gene transfer methods in biotechnology, which employs electrical pulse applied across a cell for cell membrane permeabilization. Compared with the conventional electroporation systems, MEMS-based micro electroporation devices can overcome the potential risk of excessively high voltage damage and can provide better transfection efficiency and cell viability for electroporation....[ Read more ]

Electroporation is one of the most important gene transfer methods in biotechnology, which employs electrical pulse applied across a cell for cell membrane permeabilization. Compared with the conventional electroporation systems, MEMS-based micro electroporation devices can overcome the potential risk of excessively high voltage damage and can provide better transfection efficiency and cell viability for electroporation.

In this thesis, a micro electroporation cell chip, which is easy for both fabrication and operation, was fabricated using standard lift-off technique and SU-8 photolithography. The surface of the chip was passivated by parylene thin film and treated with oxygen plasma to enhance the chip performance.

CFDRC, a commercial software, was applied to simulate the electric filed distribution in the chip, which illustrates the advantage of non-uniform electric field for electroporation. The HeLa cell and cabbage protoplast cell were used to study the micro electroporation phenomena. With the HeLa cell, cell array on a chip and critical voltage for electroporation were determined, which is a prominent progress for the micro electroporation cell chips.

The chip also provides a new way to study the electroporation process at single cell level, which can not be achieved in the conventional electroporation systems. In experiments, the fluorescent dyes were used as the electroporation indicator, the fluorescent intensity change of the cell as a function of the pulse amplitude and pulse duration time during the electroporation process were studied in detail. Furthermore, it was found that the fluorescence video microscopy and the corresponding digital image analysis can be useful in cell viability test and the electroporation modelling.

In summary, the thesis introduces a micro electroporation cell chip and demonstrates its potential in electroporation study.