title: Single-cell stimulation and electroporation using a novel 0.18 µ CMOS chip with subcellular-sized electrodes.
abstract: In drug screening and pharmaceutical research, high-throughput systems that are able to perform single-cell measurements are highly desired. Micro-electrode arrays try to answer this need but still suffer from significant drawbacks such as a small amount of electrodes and the inability to address single cells. Here, we present a novel multi-transistor array chip with 16,384 subcellular-sized electrodes based on 0.18 µm CMOS technology. We show that single-cell stimulation is possible by applying voltage pulses on the electrode to stimulate the cells lying on top. Electroporation of the cell membrane is observed using the whole-cell patch clamp technique and fluorescent dye-based live imaging. This technology could be used for high-throughput, single-cell manipulations for the purpose of large-scale drug screening and the investigation of fundamental cell processes.
authors.affiliation: Bioelectronics Group, Imec, Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. dries.braeken@imec.be
authors.forename: Dries
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Braeken
authors.forename: Roeland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Huys
authors.forename: Josine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Loo
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartic
authors.forename: Gustaaf
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Borghs
authors.forename: Geert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Callewaert
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Eberle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004566:Electrodes; D018274:Electroporation / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D018408:Patch-Clamp Techniques; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium