Parametric Study of Pulsed Radio-Frequency Electroporation on Microchip at the Single-cell Level

Fan YANG, Huiqi HE, Donald C. CHANG and Yi-Kuen LEE

In this study, a new micro electroporation cell chip was fabricated by MEMS technology and tested by using cabbage protoplast cells. The fluorescent intensity variations of these cells as a function of the electric pulse amplitude and pulse duration time during the electroporation process were studied in detail at the single-cell level. Large statistical data of the critical voltage can be easily obtained to improve the electroporation efficiency.

Keywords: micro electroporation, protoplast cells, SU-8, parylene, propidium iodide

Acknowledgement

This work is supported partially by Hong Kong Research Grant Council through HKUST 6017/02E and by HKUST Institute of Microsystem through I2MS01/02.EG08.

REFERENCES

[1] D. C. Chang, et al., Guide to Electroporation and Electrofusion, Academic Press, 1992.

[2] S. W. Lee, H. Yowanto and Y. C. Tai, IEEE MEMS’98, Heidelberg, Germany, 443-447 (1998).

[3] D.J. Harrison, et al., MicroTAS’01, Monterey, California, 10-12 (2001).

[4] Y.-C. Lin, et al. MicroTAS’02, Nara, Japan, 847-849 (2002).

[5] Y. Huang, et al., IEEE MEMS’03, Kyoto, Japan, 403-406 (2003).