title: Application of dynamic diffractive optics for enhanced femtosecond laser based cell transfection.
abstract: We demonstrate the advantages of a dynamic diffractive optical element, namely a spatial light modulator (SLM) for the controlled and enhanced optoinjection and phototransfection of mammalian cells with a femtosecond light source. The SLM provides full control over the lateral and axial positioning of the beam with sub-micron precision. Fast beam translation enables time-sequenced irradiation, which is shown to enhance the optoinjection efficiency and alleviate the problem of exact beam positioning on the cell membrane. We show that irradiation in three axial positions doubles the number of viably optoinjected cells when compared with a single dose. The presented system also enables untargeted raster scan irradiation which provides a higher throughput transfection of adherent cells at the rate of 1 cell per second. Additionally, fluorescent imaging is used to demonstrate cell selective two-step gene therapy.
authors.affiliation: SULSA, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY169TS, UK. ma81@st-andrews.ac.uk
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Antkowiak
authors.forename: Maria Leilani
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Torres-Mapa
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gunn-Moore
authors.forename: Kishan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dholakia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D007834:Lasers; D008027:Light; D055620:Optical Phenomena; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013997:Time Factors; D014162:Transfection / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*