Flow-through micro-electroporation chip for high efficiency single-cell genetic manipulation

Genetic manipulation of individual cells is of great interests in biology and biotechnology. Micro-electroporation technology has been demonstrated in our previous work with the capability of performing controlled electroporation to facilitate gene transfer in individual biological cells. This paper extends the work by introducing the design and fabrication of an improved micro-electroporation chip that employs microfluidic channels to precisely handle cells in a flow-through manner to achieve high effectiveness in genetic manipulation of cells. Controlled introduction of macromolecules into individual cells are also demonstrated. Transfection of an individual cell is shown to prove the feasibility of single-cell genetic engineering. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.