(577a) A Nanochannel/Microwell Array Device for Controlled Gene Delivery to Individual Cells by Localized Electroporation

Most gene and macromolecule drug delivery methods, such as viral and non-viral nanoparticles, electroporation, gene gun, etc., are stochastic processes where 10⁵-10⁶ cells are randomly transfected by a very large number of genes/drugs. It is impossible to control the injected dose, particularly for multiple gene/drug delivery. In this study, we introduce a novel, simple and low-cost method capable of fabricating large and well-defined arrays of polymeric planar nanochannels, together with microscale features that allow cells to be loaded for electroporation. This nanochannel/microwell array system can manipulate either a small (one to several) or a large (>100,000) number of cells and inject multiple genes/drugs through nanochannels into individual cells with minimum damage and high efficiency by localized electroporation. The dosage can be controlled by changing the length of nanochannel and the diameter of microwells. Another advantage of this design is the uniform electric field distribution leading to much more uniform gene transfection when compared to bulk electroporation where the shading effect always exists due to the random cell distributions.