A novel portable cell sonoporation device based on open-source acoustofluidics
Bin Song, Wei Zhang, Xue Bai, Lin Feng, Deyuan Zhang, Fumihito Arai
Abstract
Sonoporation, which typically employs acoustic cavitation microbubbles, can enhance the permeability of the cell membrane, allowing foreign matter to enter cells across the natural barriers. However, the diameter nonuniformity and random distribution of microbubbles make it difficult to achieve controllable and high-efficiency sonoporation, while complex extern acoustic driving system also limits its applicability. Herein, we demonstrate a low-cost, expandable, and portable acoustofluidic device for cell sonoporation using acoustic streaming generated by oscillating sharp edges. The streaming-induced high shear forces can (i) quickly trap target cells at the tip of sharp edges and (ii) transiently modulate the permeability of the cell membrane, which is utilized to perform cell sonoporation events. Using our device, sonoporation is successfully achieved in a microbubble-free manner, with a sonoporation efficiency of more than 90%. Furthermore, our acoustic driving system is designed around the open-source Arduino prototyping platform due to its extendibility and portability. In addition to these benefits, our acoustofluidic device is simple to fabricate and operate, and it can work at relatively low frequency (4.6 kHz). All these advantages make our novel cell sonoporation device invaluable for many biological and biomedical applications such as drug delivery and gene transfection.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2020_anovelportablece,
title = {A novel portable cell sonoporation device based on open-source acoustofluidics},
author = {Bin Song and Wei Zhang and Xue Bai and Lin Feng and Deyuan Zhang and Fumihito Arai},
booktitle = {IROS 2020},
year = {2020}
}