The authors would like to acknowledge financial support by the National Science Foundation (NSF CBET 0967598, DBI IDBR 1353918) and the U.S. Department of Education&#39;s Graduate Training in Emerging Areas of Precision and Personalized Medicine (P200A150131) for funding&#160;graduate student J.J.S. on fellowship.

<ol>
	<li>Gao, Q. Q., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Therapeutic+potential+of+CRISPR/Cas9+gene+editing+in+engineered+T-cell+therapy.">Therapeutic potential of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing in engineered T-cell therapy.</a> Cancer Medicine. 8 (9), 4254-4264 (2019).</li><li>Aijaz, A., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Biomanufacturing+for+clinically+advanced+cell+therapies.">Biomanufacturing for clinically advanced cell therapies.</a> Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2 (6), 362-376 (2018).</li><li>Milone, M. 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The authors have nothing to disclose.

The methodology presented within this protocol primarily focuses on the microfabrication of a microfluidic device that is then integrated into a specialized electroporation experimental setup. The term &#39;recipe&#39;, which is often used when describing the specifics of the microfabrication process, hints at the importance of following/optimizing each step to successfully fabricate a functioning device. However, certain critical steps within the process, when not optimized, such as UV exposure time/energy, PVD sputteri...

Current therapeutic innovations in biomedical research, such as CAR-T (Chimeric Antigen Receptor Engineered T cell) cell therapy and genetic editing using CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat DNA sequences)/Cas9, heavily rely on the ability to deliver exogenous material both successfully and efficiently into the intracellular space1. In CAR-T therapy, the gold standard to perform the gene delivery step in cell therapy manufacturing is using viral vectors2. Though viral-mediated gene delivery is an efficient delivery modality, it also has several drawbacks. These include manufacturing costs, cytotoxicity, immunogenicity, mutagenesis/tumorigenesis potential, and size limitations on the gene(s) to be delivered3. These limitations have led to the research and development of alternative, non-viral delivery technologies.
Electroporation, an alternative to viral-mediated gene delivery, relies on the application of an optimal electrical pulse waveform to perform DNA, RNA, and protein transfections of cells. Following the application of an external electric field, the cell membrane is briefly compromised, making the cell susceptible to the intracellular delivery of otherwise impermeable exogenous materials4. Compared to viral-mediated delivery, electroporation is advantageous as it is generally safe, easy to operate, and has low operating costs. Electroporation can deliver both small and large molecular cargo and can be efficient in transfecting cells regardless of lineage5. To achieve desirable outcomes following electroporation, i.e., good viability and good electro-transfection efficiency, a variety of experimental parameters need to be co-optimized. These include cell type6, cell density, molecule concentration7, electroporation buffer properties (e.g., molecular composition, conductivity, and osmolarity)8, electrode size/geometry9, and electrical pulse waveform (shape, polarity, number of pulses)10 (refer to Figure 1 for an illustration). Although each of these parameters can have a significant effect on the outcomes of electroporation experiments, pulse waveform has been especially studied in great detail, as the electrical energy of the applied pulse(s) is the root of the intrinsic trade-off between the resulting cell viability and electro-transfection efficiency8.
Typically, electroporation experiments are performed on the macro-scale, where cells are suspended in 100s of microliters of buffer between a set of large, parallel-plate electrodes within an electroporation cuvette. The electrodes are commonly manufactured out of aluminum with an electrode distance of 1-4 mm. Once the cells are manually loaded via pipette, the cuvette is electrically connected to a bulky, electrical pulse generator where the user can set and apply the pulse waveform parameters to electroporate the cell suspension. Although macro-scale or bulk electroporation can process cell densities &#62;106 cells/mL, this feature can be wasteful when optimizing the electrical pulse waveform settings. This is particularly of concern when electroporating primary cell types where the cell population numbers can be limited. Additionally, due to the large distance between the electrodes, the pulse generator must be able to supply large voltages to achieve electric field strengths &#62;1kV/cm11. These high voltages cause resistive power dissipation through the electrolyte buffer resulting in Joule heating, which can be detrimental to the resulting cell viability12. Lastly, performing electroporation on a dense suspension of cells will consistently be burdened with an innate variability in the resulting electro-transfection efficiency and cell viability. Each cell in suspension could experience a different electric field strength due to the surrounding cells. Depending on whether the experienced electric field strength is either increased or decreased, the resulting cell viability or electro-transfection efficiency may each be negatively impacted11. These downsides to macro-scale electroporation have led to the pursuit and development of alternative technologies that operate on the micro-scale and allow for better control at the single-cell level.
The field of BioMEMS, or biomedical micro-electro-mechanical systems, stems from the technological advancements made in the microelectronics industry. Specifically, utilizing microfabrication processes to develop micro-devices for the advancement of biomedical research. These advancements include the development of micro-electrode arrays for in vivo electrical monitoring13, capacitive micro-electrodes for in situ electroporation14, miniaturized organ-on-a-chip devices15, microfluidic point-of-care diagnostics16, biosensors17, and drug delivery systems18, including nano- and micro-electroporation devices19,20,21. Due to the ability to design and manufacture devices at the same size scale as biological cells, nano- and micro-electroporation technologies are advantageous when compared to their macro-scale counterpart22,23. These electroporation devices eliminate the requirement of high voltage pulse applications, as electrode sets with spacings of 10s to 100s of micrometers are typically integrated. This feature drastically reduces the current through the electrolyte, which in turn reduces the accumulation of toxic electrolysis products and the effects of Joule heating in these systems. The micro-scale channels also ensure that a much more uniform electric field is reliably applied to the cells during pulse application, resulting in more consistent outcomes24. In addition, it is also commonplace for micro-electroporation devices to be integrated into a microfluidic platform which lends itself for future integration into a fully automated technology, a highly desirable capability in cell therapy manufacturing25. Lastly, micro-scale electroporation allows for the electrical interrogation of electroporation events. For example, the degree of cell membrane permeabilization can be monitored in real-time at a single cell level26,27. The purpose of this method is to describe the microfabrication, system operation, and analysis of a microfluidic, single-cell micro-electroporation device capable of measuring the degree of cell membrane permeabilization for optimizing electroporation protocols, yet increasing throughput over the previous state-of-the-art.
Performing single-cell level electroporation is no longer a novel technique, as it was first demonstrated by Rubinsky et al. in 2001 with the development of a static cell electroporation technology28. Their micro-device was innovative as they were the first to demonstrate the ability to electrically monitor the event of electroporation. This has further led to the development of static, single-cell electroporation technologies capable of electrically detecting the degree of cell membrane permeabilization in a parallelized manner to increase the throughputs of the devices. However, even with parallelization and batch processing, these devices severely lack the total number of cells they can process per unit time29,30. This limitation has led to the development of flow-through devices capable of performing single-cell level micro-electroporation at much greater throughputs31. This device transition, from static to flow-through environment, limits the capability of electrically monitoring the degree of cell membrane permeabilization following the application of the electroporation pulse. The method described in this work bridges the gap between these two technologies, a micro-electroporation technology capable of electrically detecting, pulsing, and monitoring the degree of cell membrane permeabilization of individual cells, in a continuous-flow, serial fashion.
This technology was recently described in Zheng et al. In that work, the capabilities of this technology were introduced with the completion of a parametric study, where both the amplitude and duration of the electroporation pulse were varied, and the ensuing electrical signal, indicative of cell membrane permeabilization, was explored32. The results showed that an increase in the intensity of the electroporation pulse (i.e., increase in applied electric field or increase in pulse duration) caused an increase in the measured cell membrane permeabilization. To further validate the system, a common fluorescent indicator of successful electroporation, propidium iodide33, was added to the cell suspension, and a fluorescence image was captured immediately following the application of the electrical pulse. The optical signal, i.e., the fluorescence intensity of propidium iodide inside the cell, was strongly correlated with the electrical measurement of the degree of cell membrane permeabilization, verifying the reliability of this electrical measurement. However, this work only considered the delivery of the small molecule propidium iodide, which has little to no translatable significance.
In this work, a new application of this technology is introduced to improve upon the throughput of the system while delivering a biologically active plasmid DNA (pDNA) vector and assessing the electro-transfection efficiency of cells replated and cultured following electroporation. Though the previous work outperforms existing micro-electroporation technologies that are capable of electrically measuring the event of electroporation, the current state of the device still requires long cell transit times between the electrode set (~250 ms) to perform the cell detection, pulse application, and the cell membrane permeabilization measurement. With a single channel, this limits the throughput to 4 cells/s. To combat this limitation, a new concept of cell-population-based feedback-controlled electroporation is introduced to perform pDNA electro-transfection. By using a hypo-physiologic conductivity electroporation buffer, this system allows for the electrical interrogation of single cells across a multitude of electroporation pulse applications. Based on the electrical response, an &#39;optimal&#39; electroporation pulse is then determined. A &#39;high-throughput&#39; mode is then implemented where the cell membrane permeabilization determination is nullified, the flow rate is increased, and the electroporation pulse duty cycle is matched to the cell transit time to ensure one pulse per cell in transit between the electrodes. This work will provide extensive details into the microfabrication steps for the manufacturing of the micro-device, the material/equipment and their setup required to perform the experimentation, and the operation/analysis of the device and its electro-transfection efficiency (eTE).
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/63103/63103fig01.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: Experimental factors affecting electroporation outcomes. (Left) Cell Suspension-Important factors to consider prior to the onset of electroporation include: Payload (in this case, pDNA), concentration, cell density, and electroporation buffer properties. Electroporation buffer properties to consider are conductivity, osmolarity, and the exact molecular composition contributing to these values. (Middle) Pulse Application-The exact pulse-type (square wave vs. exponential decay) and pulse waveform (single pulse vs. pulse train) must be optimized to maximize both the resulting cell viability and electro-transfection efficiency. Common pulse trains implemented in electroporation processes are typically composed of a series of High Voltage (HV) pulses or series of pulses rotating between HV and Low Voltage (LV) pulse magnitudes. (Right) Cell Recovery-Down-stream processing steps, in particular, the recovery cell culture media that cells are transferred to, should be optimized. Not featured (Far Left), additional upstream cell processing steps can be implemented for overall electroporation process optimization. <a href="https://www.jove.com/files/ftp_upload/63103/63103fig1v3large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>150-mm diameter petri dishes</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>25384-326</td>
			<td>step 6.1.1 to secure wafer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>24-well tissue culture plates</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>10062-896</td>
			<td>step 10.3.6 to plate electroporated cells</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>33220A Waveform/Function generator</td>
			<td>Agilent</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>step 9.2.3 electroporation pulse generator</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>4&#39;&#39; Si-wafers</td>
			<td>University Wafer</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 2.1 for microfluidic channel fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>6-well tissue culture plates</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>10062-892</td>
			<td>step 8.1.8 to plate cells</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Acetone</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A18-4</td>
			<td>step 2.1.2 for cleaning and&#160; step 5.1 photoresist lift-off</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Allegra X-22R Centrifuge</td>
			<td>Beckman Coulter</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>steps 8.1.4 , 8.3.2. and 8.3.3. to spin down cells</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>AutoCAD 2018</td>
			<td>Autodesk</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 1.1. to design transparency masks</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Buffered oxide etchant 10:1</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>901621-1L</td>
			<td>subsection 3.1 for HF etching</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CCD Monochrome microscope camera</td>
			<td>Hamamatsu</td>
			<td>Orca 285 C4742-96-12G04</td>
			<td>step 11.2.3. for imaging</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>CMOS camera- Sensicam QE 1.4MP</td>
			<td>PCO</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 9.3 part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Conductive Epoxy</td>
			<td>CircuitWorks</td>
			<td>CW2400</td>
			<td>subsection 7.6. for wire attachement</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Conical Centrifuge Tubes, 15 mL</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>14-959-70C</td>
			<td>step 8.1.4. for cell centrifuging</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dektak 3ST Surface Profilometer</td>
			<td>Veeco (Sloan/Dektak)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>step 2.1.15 and 5.4 for surface profilometry</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Disposable biopsy punch, 0.75 mm</td>
			<td>Robbins Instruments</td>
			<td>RBP075</td>
			<td>step 6.2.3 for inlet access</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Disposable biopsy punch, 3 mm</td>
			<td>Robbins Instruments</td>
			<td>RBP30P</td>
			<td>step 6.2.3 for outlet access</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DRAQ5</td>
			<td>abcam</td>
			<td>ab108410</td>
			<td>step 11.2.2. for live cell staining</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dulbecco&#8217;s Modified Eagle&#8217;s Medium</td>
			<td>ThermoFisher Scientific</td>
			<td>11885084</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2. part of media composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>E3631A Bipolar Triple DC power supply</td>
			<td>Agilent</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>step 9.2.1.-9.2.2.part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Eclipse TE2000-U Inverted&#160; Microscope</td>
			<td>Nikon</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>&#160;subsection 9.3. part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>EVG620 UV Lithography System</td>
			<td>EVG</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>&#160;step 2.1.9. and 2.2.7. for UV Exposure</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fetal Bovine Serum</td>
			<td>Neuromics</td>
			<td>FBS001</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2. part of media composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>FS20 Ultrasonic Cleaner</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 5.1. for photoresist lift-off</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass Media Bottle with Cap, 100mL</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>FB800100</td>
			<td>step 8.2.1. for buffer storage</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Glass Media Bottle with Cap, 500mL</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>FB800500</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2.for media storage</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEK-293 cell line</td>
			<td>ATCC</td>
			<td>CRL-1573</td>
			<td>subsection 8.1 for cell culturing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HEPES buffer solution</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>83264-100ML-F</td>
			<td>step 8.2.1 part of electroporation buffer composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Hexamethyldisilazane</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>379212-25ML</td>
			<td>step 2.2.3 adhesion promoter</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HF2LI Lock-in Amplifier</td>
			<td>Zurich Instruments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 9.2 part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HF2TA Current amplifier</td>
			<td>Zurich Instruments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 9.2 part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Isopropyl Alcohol</td>
			<td>Fisher Scientific</td>
			<td>A459-1</td>
			<td>step 2.1.2 for cleaning, step 2.1.14 for rinsing wafer following SU-8 development, and step 6.3.1 for cleaning PDMS</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IX81 fluorescence microscope</td>
			<td>Olympus</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>step 11.2.3 for imaging</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>L-Glutamine Solution</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>G7513-20ML</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2. part of media composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>M16878/1BFA 22 gauge wire</td>
			<td>AWC</td>
			<td>B22-1</td>
			<td>subsection 7.5 for device fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Magnesium chloride</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>208337-100G</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2 part of electroporation buffer composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>MF 319 Developer</td>
			<td>Kayaku Advanced Materials</td>
			<td>10018042</td>
			<td>step 2.2.9. photoresist developer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microposit S1818 photoresist</td>
			<td>Kayaku Advanced Materials</td>
			<td>1136925</td>
			<td>step 2.2.4 positive photoresist for electrode patterning</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Microscope slides, 75 x 25 mm</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>16004-422</td>
			<td>step 2.2.1 electrode soda lime glass substrate</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Model 2350 High voltage amplifier</td>
			<td>TEGAM</td>
			<td>2350</td>
			<td>step 9.2.5. part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>National Instruments LabVIEW</td>
			<td>National Instruments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>data acquisition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Needle, 30G x 1 in</td>
			<td>BD Scientific</td>
			<td>305128</td>
			<td>step 10.1.1. part of the system priming</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PA90 IC OPAMP Power circuit</td>
			<td>Digi-key</td>
			<td>598-1330-ND</td>
			<td>Part of the custom circuit</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Penicillin-Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>P4458-20ML</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2. part of media composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmid pMAX-GFP</td>
			<td>Lonza</td>
			<td>VCA-1003</td>
			<td>step 8.3.4. for intracellular delivery</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plastic tubing, 0.010&#39;&#39; x 0.030&#34;</td>
			<td>VWR</td>
			<td>89404-300</td>
			<td>step 10.1.2. for system priming</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Platinum targets</td>
			<td>Kurt J. Lesker</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 4.2. for physical vapor deposition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Potassium chloride</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>P9333-500G</td>
			<td>step 8.2.1. part of electroporation buffer composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pump 11 PicoPlus microfluidic syringe pump</td>
			<td>Harvard Apparatus</td>
			<td>MA1 70-2213</td>
			<td>step 10.1.4. for system priming</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PVD75 Physical vapor deposition system</td>
			<td>Kurt J. Lesker</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 4.1. for physical vapor deposition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PWM32 Spinner System</td>
			<td>Headway Research</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>steps 2.1.6 and 2.2.2. for substrate coating with photoresist</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PX-250 Plasma treatment system</td>
			<td>March Instruments</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 7.2 for PDMS and glass substrate bonding</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SDG1025 Function/Waveform generator</td>
			<td>Siglent</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>step 9.2.2. part of the experimental setup</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sodium hydroxide</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>S8045-500G</td>
			<td>step 8.2.1. part of electroporation buffer composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SU-8 2010 negative photoresist</td>
			<td>Kayaku Advanced Materials</td>
			<td>Y111053</td>
			<td>step 2.1.7. for microfluidic channel patterning</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SU-8 developer</td>
			<td>Microchem</td>
			<td>Y010200</td>
			<td>step 2.1.12. for photoresist developing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sucrose</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>S7903-1KG</td>
			<td>step 8.2.1. part of electroporation buffer composition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Sylgard 184 elastomer kit</td>
			<td>Dow Corning</td>
			<td>3097358-1004</td>
			<td>step 6.2.1&#160; 10 : 1 mixture of PDMS polymer and hardening agent</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Syringe, 1 ml</td>
			<td>BD Scientific</td>
			<td>309628</td>
			<td>step 8.3.4. part of system priming</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>SZ61 Stereomicroscope System</td>
			<td>Olympus</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 7.3. for channel and electrode alignment</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Tissue Culture Treated T25 Flasks</td>
			<td>Falcon</td>
			<td>353108</td>
			<td>step 8.1.2 for cell culturing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Titanium targets</td>
			<td>Kurt J. Lesker</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>subsection 4.2. for physical vapor deposition</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Transparency masks</td>
			<td>CAD/ART Services</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>steps 2.1.9. and 2.2.7. for photolithography</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trichloro(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl)silane</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>448931-10G</td>
			<td>step 6.1.2. for wafer silanization</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Trypsin-EDTA solution</td>
			<td>Sigma Aldrich</td>
			<td>T4049-100ML</td>
			<td>steps 8.1.3. and 8.3.1. for cell harvesting</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

the fabrication and operation of a continuous flow, micro-electroporation system with permeabilization detection

Current therapeutic innovations, such as CAR-T cell therapy, are heavily reliant on viral-mediated gene delivery. Although efficient, this technique is accompanied by high manufacturing costs, which has brought about an interest in using alternative methods for gene delivery. Electroporation is an electro-physical, non-viral approach for the intracellular delivery of genes and other exogenous materials. Upon the application of an electric field, the cell membrane temporarily allows molecular delivery into the cell. Typically, electroporation is performed on the macroscale to process large numbers of cells. However, this approach requires extensive empirical protocol development, which is costly when working with primary and difficult-to-transfect cell types. Lengthy protocol development, coupled with the requirement of large voltages to achieve sufficient electric-field strengths to permeabilize the cells, has led to the development of micro-scale electroporation devices. These micro-electroporation devices are manufactured using common microfabrication techniques and allow for greater experimental control with the potential to maintain high throughput capabilities. This work builds off a microfluidic-electroporation technology capable of detecting the level of cell membrane permeabilization at a single-cell level under continuous flow. However, this technology was limited to 4 cells processed per second, and thus a new approach for increasing the system throughput is proposed and presented here. This new technique, denoted as cell-population-based feedback control, considers the cell permeabilization response to a variety of electroporation pulsing conditions and determines the best-suited electroporation pulse conditions for the cell type under test. A higher-throughput mode is then used, where this 'optimal' pulse is applied to the cell suspension in transit. The steps for fabricating the device, setting up and running the microfluidic experiments, and analyzing the results are presented in detail. Finally, this micro-electroporation technology is demonstrated by delivering a DNA plasmid encoding for green fluorescent protein (GFP) into HEK293 cells.

Figure 4 highlights the operating principles behind the single-cell-level membrane permeabilization detection for a single pulse amplitude. Following the initiation of the electroporation experiment, the cell detection algorithm determines an optimal threshold for cell detection via a point-by-point, slope-based detection method. The system then continuously monitors (1) for a significant negative change in the measured electrical current, which is indicative of the entry of a cell. This is ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about The Fabrication and Operation of a Continuous Flow, Micro-Electroporation System with Permeabilization Detection at JoVE.com

The Fabrication and Operation of a Continuous Flow, Micro-Electroporation System with Permeabilization Detection

This protocol describes the microfabrication techniques required to build a lab-on-a-chip, microfluidic electroporation device. The experimental setup performs controlled, single-cell-level transfections in a continuous flow and can be extended to higher throughputs with population-based control. An analysis is provided showcasing the ability to electrically monitor the degree of cell membrane permeabilization in real-time.

Current therapeutic innovations, such as CAR-T cell therapy, are heavily reliant on viral-mediated gene delivery. Although efficient, this technique is ...

the-fabrication-operation-continuous-flow-micro-electroporation

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JoVE Journal

Bioengineering

2.7K Views.  Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. This protocol describes the microfabrication techniques required to build a lab-on-a-chip, microfluidic electroporation device. The experimental setup performs controlled, single-cell-level transfections in a continuous flow and can be extended to higher throughputs with population-based control. An analysis is provided showcasing the ability to electrically monitor the degree of cell membrane permeabilization in real-time.

Video: The Fabrication and Operation of a Continuous Flow, Micro-Electroporation System with Permeabilization Detection

Fabrication of Electrochemical-DNA Biosensors for the Reagentless Detection of Nucleic Acids, Proteins and Small Molecules

As medicine is currently practiced, doctors send specimens to a central laboratory for testing and thus must wait hours or days to 
receive the results. Many patients would be better served by rapid, bedside tests. To this end our laboratory and others have developed a versatile, reagentless 
biosensor platform that supports the quantitative, reagentless, electrochemical detection of nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), proteins (including antibodies) and small 
molecules analytes directly in unprocessed clinical and environmental samples. In this video, we demonstrate the preparation and use of several biosensors in this 
"E-DNA" class. In particular, we fabricate and demonstrate sensors for the detection of a target DNA sequence in a polymerase chain reaction mixture, an HIV-specific antibody and the drug cocaine. The preparation procedure requires only three hours of hands-on effort followed by an overnight incubation, and their use requires only minutes.

"E-DNA" sensors, reagentless, electrochemical biosensors that perform well even when challenged directly in blood and other complex matrices, have been adapted to the detection of a wide range of nucleic acid, protein and small molecule analytes. Here we present a general procedure for the fabrication and use of such sensors.

As medicine is currently practiced, doctors send specimens to a central laboratory for testing and thus must wait hours or days to 
receive the results. ...

Parallel-plate Flow Chamber and Continuous Flow Circuit to Evaluate Endothelial Progenitor Cells under Laminar Flow Shear Stress

The overall goal of this method is to describe a technique to subject adherent cells to laminar flow conditions and evaluate their response to well quantifiable fluid shear stresses1.
Our flow chamber design and flow circuit (Fig. 1) contains a transparent viewing region that enables testing of cell adhesion and imaging of cell morphology immediately before flow (Fig. 11A, B), at various time points during flow (Fig. 11C), and after flow (Fig. 11D). These experiments are illustrated with human umbilical cord blood-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) and porcine EPCs2,3.
This method is also applicable to other adherent cell types, e.g. smooth muscle cells (SMCs) or fibroblasts.
The chamber and all parts of the circuit are easily sterilized with steam autoclaving. In contrast to other chambers, e.g. microfluidic chambers, large numbers of cells (&gt; 1 million depending on cell size) can be recovered after the flow experiment under sterile conditions for cell culture or other experiments, e.g. DNA or RNA extraction, or immunohistochemistry (Fig. 11E), or scanning electron microscopy5. The shear stress can be adjusted by varying the flow rate of the perfusate, the fluid viscosity, or the channel height and width. The latter can reduce fluid volume or cell needs while ensuring that one-dimensional flow is maintained. It is not necessary to measure chamber height between experiments, since the chamber height does not depend on the use of gaskets, which greatly increases the ease of multiple experiments. Furthermore, the circuit design easily enables the collection of perfusate samples for analysis and/or quantification of metabolites secreted by cells under fluid shear stress exposure, e.g. nitric oxide (Fig. 12)6.

We are describing a method to subject adherent cells to laminar flow shear stress in a sterile continuous flow circuit. The cells' adhesion, morphology can be studied through the transparent chamber, samples obtained from the circuit for metabolite analysis and cells harvested after shear exposure for future experiments or culture.

The overall goal of this method is to describe a technique to subject adherent cells to laminar flow conditions and evaluate their response to well ...

Bacterial Detection &amp; Identification Using Electrochemical Sensors

Electrochemical sensors are widely used for rapid and accurate measurement of blood glucose and can be adapted for detection of a wide variety of analytes. Electrochemical sensors operate by transducing a biological recognition event into a useful electrical signal. Signal transduction occurs by coupling the activity of a redox enzyme to an amperometric electrode. Sensor specificity is either an inherent characteristic of the enzyme, glucose oxidase in the case of a glucose sensor, or a product of linkage between the enzyme and an antibody or probe.
Here, we describe an electrochemical sensor assay method to directly detect and identify bacteria. In every case, the probes described here are DNA oligonucleotides. This method is based on sandwich hybridization of capture and detector probes with target ribosomal RNA (rRNA). The capture probe is anchored to the sensor surface, while the detector probe is linked to horseradish peroxidase (HRP). When a substrate such as 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) is added to an electrode with capture-target-detector complexes bound to its surface, the substrate is oxidized by HRP and reduced by the working electrode. This redox cycle results in shuttling of electrons by the substrate from the electrode to HRP, producing current flow in the electrode.

We describe an electrochemical sensor assay method for rapid bacterial detection and identification. The assay involves a sensor array functionalized with DNA oligonucleotide capture probes for ribosomal RNA (rRNA) species-specific sequences. Sandwich hybridization of target rRNA with the capture probe and a horseradish peroxidase-linked DNA oligonucleotide detector probe produces a measurable amperometric current.

Electrochemical  sensors are widely used for rapid and accurate measurement of blood glucose and  can be adapted for detection of a wide variety of ...

Microfluidic Picoliter Bioreactor for Microbial Single-cell Analysis: Fabrication, System Setup, and Operation

In this protocol the fabrication, experimental setup and basic operation of the recently introduced microfluidic picoliter bioreactor (PLBR) is described in detail. The PLBR can be utilized for the analysis of single bacteria and microcolonies to investigate biotechnological and microbiological related questions concerning, e.g.&#160;cell growth, morphology, stress response, and metabolite or protein production on single-cell level. The device features continuous media flow enabling constant environmental conditions for perturbation studies, but in addition allows fast medium changes as well as oscillating conditions to mimic any desired environmental situation. To fabricate the single use devices, a silicon wafer containing sub micrometer sized SU-8 structures served as the replication mold for rapid polydimethylsiloxane casting. Chips were cut, assembled, connected, and set up onto a high resolution and fully automated microscope suited for time-lapse imaging, a powerful tool for spatio-temporal cell analysis. Here, the biotechnological platform organism Corynebacterium glutamicum&#160;was seeded into the PLBR and cell growth and intracellular fluorescence were followed over several hours unraveling time dependent population heterogeneity on single-cell level, not possible with conventional analysis methods such as flow cytometry. Besides insights into device fabrication, furthermore, the preparation of the preculture, loading, trapping of bacteria, and the PLBR cultivation of single cells and colonies is demonstrated. These devices will add a new dimension in microbiological research to analyze time dependent phenomena of single bacteria under tight environmental control. Due to the simple and relatively short fabrication process the technology can be easily adapted at any microfluidics lab and simply tailored towards specific needs.

In this protocol the fabrication, setup and basic operation of a microfluidic picoliter bioreactor (PLBR) for single-cell analysis of prokaryotic microorganisms is introduced. Industrially relevant microorganisms were analyzed as proof of principle allowing insights into growth rate, morphology, and phenotypic heterogeneity over certain time periods, hardly possible with conventional methods.

In this protocol the fabrication, experimental setup and basic operation of the recently introduced microfluidic picoliter bioreactor (PLBR) is described ...

Microfluidic Fabrication of Polymeric and Biohybrid Fibers with Predesigned Size and Shape

A &#8220;sheath&#8221; fluid passing through a microfluidic channel at low Reynolds number can be directed around another &#8220;core&#8221; stream and used to dictate the shape as well as the diameter of a core stream.&#160;Grooves in the top and bottom of a microfluidic channel were designed to direct the sheath fluid and shape the core fluid.&#160;By matching the viscosity and hydrophilicity of the sheath and core fluids, the interfacial effects are minimized and complex fluid shapes can be formed.&#160;Controlling the relative flow rates of the sheath and core fluids determines the cross-sectional area of the core fluid.&#160;Fibers have been produced with sizes ranging from 300 nm to ~1 mm, and fiber cross-sections can be round, flat, square, or complex as in the case with double anchor fibers. Polymerization of the core fluid downstream from the shaping region solidifies the fibers.&#160;Photoinitiated click chemistries are well suited for rapid polymerization of the core fluid by irradiation with ultraviolet light.&#160;Fibers with a wide variety of shapes have been produced from a list of polymers including liquid crystals, poly(methylmethacrylate), thiol-ene and thiol-yne resins, polyethylene glycol, and hydrogel derivatives. Minimal shear during the shaping process and mild polymerization conditions also makes the fabrication process well suited for encapsulation of cells and other biological components.

Two adjacent fluids passing through a grooved microfluidic channel can be directed to form a sheath around a prepolymer core; thereby&#160;determining both shape and cross-section. Photoinitiated polymerization, such as thiol click chemistry, is well suited for rapidly solidifying the core fluid into a microfiber with predetermined size and shape.

A &#8220;sheath&#8221; fluid passing through a microfluidic channel at low Reynolds number can be directed around another &#8220;core&#8221; stream and ...

The Submerged Printing of Cells onto a Modified Surface Using a Continuous Flow Microspotter

The printing of cells for microarray applications possesses significant challenges including the problem of maintaining physiologically relevant cell phenotype after printing, poor organization and distribution of desired cells, and the inability to deliver drugs and/or nutrients to targeted areas in the array. Our 3D microfluidic printing technology is uniquely capable of sealing and printing arrays of cells onto submerged surfaces in an automated and multiplexed manner. The design of the microfluidic cell array (MFCA) 3D fluidics enables the printhead tip to be lowered into a liquid-filled well or dish and compressed against a surface to form a seal. The soft silicone tip of the printhead behaves like a gasket and is able to form a reversible seal by applying pressure or backing away. Other cells printing technologies such as pin or ink-jet printers are unable to print in submerged applications. Submerged surface printing is essential to maintain phenotypes of cells and to monitor these cells on a surface without disturbing the material surface characteristics. By printing onto submerged surfaces, cell microarrays are produced that allow for drug screening and cytotoxicity assessment in a multitude of areas including cancer, diabetes, inflammation, infections, and cardiovascular disease.

This 3D microfluidic printing technology prints arrays of cells onto submerged surfaces. We describe how arrays of cells are delivered microfluidically in 3D flow cells onto submerged surfaces. By printing onto submerged surfaces, cell microarrays were produced that allow for drug screening and cytotoxicity assessment in a multitude of areas.

The printing of cells for microarray applications possesses significant challenges including the problem of maintaining physiologically relevant cell ...

Sensitive Detection of Proteopathic Seeding Activity with FRET Flow Cytometry

Increasing evidence supports transcellular propagation of toxic protein aggregates, or proteopathic seeds, as a mechanism for the initiation and progression of pathology in several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and the related tauopathies. The potentially critical role of tau seeds in disease progression strongly supports the need for a sensitive assay that readily detects seeding activity in biological samples. 
By combining the specificity of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), the sensitivity of flow cytometry, and the stability of a monoclonal cell line, an ultra-sensitive seeding assay has been engineered and is compatible with seed detection from recombinant or biological samples, including human and mouse brain homogenates. The assay employs monoclonal HEK 293T cells that stably express the aggregation-prone repeat domain (RD) of tau harboring the disease-associated P301S mutation fused to either CFP or YFP, which produce a FRET signal upon protein aggregation. The uptake of proteopathic tau seeds (but not other proteins) into the biosensor cells stimulates aggregation of RD-CFP and RD-YFP, and flow cytometry sensitively and quantitatively monitors this aggregation-induced FRET. The assay detects femtomolar concentrations (monomer equivalent) of recombinant tau seeds, has a dynamic range spanning three orders of magnitude, and is compatible with brain homogenates from tauopathy transgenic mice and human tauopathy subjects. With slight modifications, the assay can also detect seeding activity of other proteopathic seeds, such as &#945;-synuclein, and is also compatible with primary neuronal cultures. The ease, sensitivity, and broad applicability of FRET flow cytometry makes it useful to study a wide range of protein aggregation disorders.

Cell-to-cell transfer of protein aggregates, or proteopathic seeds, may underlie the progression of pathology in neurodegenerative diseases. Here, a novel FRET flow cytometry assay is described that enables specific and sensitive detection of seeding activity from recombinant or biological samples.

Increasing evidence supports transcellular propagation of toxic protein aggregates, or proteopathic seeds, as a mechanism for the initiation and ...

Fast Enzymatic Processing of Proteins for MS Detection with a Flow-through Microreactor

The vast majority of mass spectrometry (MS)-based protein analysis methods involve an enzymatic digestion step prior to detection, typically with trypsin. This step is necessary for the generation of small molecular weight peptides, generally with MW &#60; 3,000-4,000 Da, that fall within the effective scan range of mass spectrometry instrumentation. Conventional protocols involve O/N enzymatic digestion at 37 &#186;C. Recent advances have led to the development of a variety of strategies, typically involving the use of a microreactor with immobilized enzymes or of a range of complementary physical processes that reduce the time necessary for proteolytic digestion to a few minutes (e.g., microwave or high-pressure). In this work, we describe a simple and cost-effective approach that can be implemented in any laboratory for achieving fast enzymatic digestion of a protein. The protein (or protein mixture) is adsorbed on C18-bonded reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) silica particles preloaded in a capillary column, and trypsin in aqueous buffer is infused over the particles for a short period of time. To enable on-line MS detection, the tryptic peptides are eluted with a solvent system with increased organic content directly in the MS ion source. This approach avoids the use of high-priced immobilized enzyme particles and does not necessitate any aid for completing the process. Protein digestion and complete sample analysis can be accomplished in less than ~3 min and ~30 min, respectively.

A quick protocol for proteolytic digestion with an in-house built flow-through tryptic microreactor coupled to an electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometer is presented. The fabrication of the microreactor, the experimental setup and the data acquisition process are described.

The vast majority of mass spectrometry (MS)-based protein analysis methods involve an enzymatic digestion step prior to detection, typically with trypsin. ...

Dry Film Photoresist-based Electrochemical Microfluidic Biosensor Platform: Device Fabrication, On-chip Assay Preparation, and System Operation

In recent years, biomarker diagnostics became an indispensable tool for the diagnosis of human disease, especially for the point-of-care diagnostics. An easy-to-use and low-cost sensor platform is highly desired to measure various types of analytes (e.g., biomarkers, hormones, and drugs) quantitatively and specifically. For this reason, dry film photoresist technology - enabling cheap, facile, and high-throughput fabrication - was used to manufacture the microfluidic biosensor presented here. Depending on the bioassay used afterwards, the versatile platform is capable of detecting various types of biomolecules. For the fabrication of the device, platinum electrodes are structured on a flexible polyimide (PI) foil in the only clean-room process step. The PI foil serves as a substrate for the electrodes, which are insulated with an epoxy-based photoresist. The microfluidic channel is subsequently generated by the development and lamination of dry film photoresist (DFR) foils onto the PI wafer. By using a hydrophobic stopping barrier in the channel, the channel is separated into two specific areas: an immobilization section for the enzyme-linked assay and an electrochemical measurement cell for the amperometric signal readout.
The on-chip bioassay immobilization is performed by the adsorption of the biomolecules to the channel surface. The glucose oxidase enzyme is used as a transducer for electrochemical signal generation. In the presence of the substrate, glucose, hydrogen peroxide is produced, which is detected at the platinum working electrode. The stop-flow technique is applied to obtain signal amplification along with rapid detection. Different biomolecules can quantitatively be measured by means of the introduced microfluidic system, giving an indication of different types of diseases, or, in regard to therapeutic drug monitoring, facilitating a personalized therapy.

A microfluidic biosensor platform was designed and fabricated using low-cost dry film photoresist technology for the rapid and sensitive quantification of various analytes. This single-use system allows for the electrochemical readout of on-chip-immobilized enzyme-linked assays by means of the stop-flow technique.

In recent years, biomarker diagnostics became an indispensable tool for the diagnosis of human disease, especially for the point-of-care diagnostics. An ...

Blood Flow Imaging with Ultrafast Doppler

The pulsed-Doppler effect is the main technique used in clinical echography to assess blood flow. Applied with conventional focused ultrasound Doppler modes, it has several limits. Firstly, a finely tuned signal filtering operation is needed to distinguish blood flows from surrounding moving tissues. Secondly, the operator must choose between localizing the blood flows or quantifying them. In the last two decades, ultrasound imaging has undergone a paradigm shift with the emergence of ultrafast ultrasound using unfocused waves. In addition to a hundredfold increase in framerate (up to 10000 Hz), this new technique also breaks the conventional quantification/localization trade-off, offering a complete blood flow mapping of the field of view and a simultaneous access to fine velocities measurements at the single-pixel level (down to 50 &#181;m). This data continuity in both spatial and temporal dimensions strongly improves the tissue/blood filtering process, which results in an increase sensitivity to small blood flow velocities (down to 1 mm/s). In this method paper, we aim to introduce the concept of ultrafast Doppler as well as its main parameters. Firstly, we summarize the physical principles of unfocused wave imaging. Then, we present the Doppler signal processing main steps. Particularly, we explain the practical implementation of the critical tissue/blood flow separation algorithms and on the extraction of velocities from these filtered data. This theoretical description is supplemented by in vitro experiences. A tissue phantom embedding a canal with flowing blood-mimicking fluid is imaged with a research programmable ultrasound system. A blood flow image is obtained and the flow characteristics are displayed for several pixels in the canal. Finally, a review of in vivo applications is proposed, showing examples in several organs such as carotids, kidney, thyroid, brain and heart.

This protocol shows how to apply ultrafast ultrasound Doppler imaging to quantify blood flows. After a 1 s long acquisition, the experimenter has access to a movie of the full field of view with axial velocity values for each pixel every &#8776;0.3 ms (depending on the ultrasound time of flight).

The pulsed-Doppler effect is the main technique used in clinical echography to assess blood flow. Applied with conventional focused ultrasound Doppler ...