Access granted: probing the single cell

A new way to manipulate the biochemical nature of a single cell’s interior has been developed by scientists in the US.

Most biologically active structures in a cell are protected by the cell membrane, which is relatively impermeable to most ionic and polar substances, making it difficult to traverse.

Electroporation is a technique that uses high electric fields to induce structural rearrangements of the cell membrane, thus increasing its permeability and allowing access to the cell interior.

In recent work, Michelle Khine and Adrian Lau and their team from the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a simple disposable electroporation device for use on single cells. The team use a polydimethysiloxane chip that can selectively immobilise and locally electroporate single cells. The chip can also simultaneously monitor the cells real time responses. The team demonstrate that the cells reseal using their set-up.

Khine and Lau hope that this work could have important applications in the future for high-throughput drug screening or cellular dynamic bioassays.

Helen Fletcher