title: Toward Contactless Biology: Acoustophoretic DNA Transfection.
abstract: Acoustophoresis revolutionized the field of container-less manipulation of liquids and solids by enabling mixing procedures which avoid contamination and loss of reagents due to the contact with the support. While its applications to chemistry and engineering are straightforward, additional developments are needed to obtain reliable biological protocols in a contactless environment. Here, we provide a first, fundamental step towards biological reactions in air by demonstrating the acoustophoretic DNA transfection of mammalian cells. We developed an original acoustophoretic design capable of levitating, moving and mixing biological suspensions of living mammalians cells and of DNA plasmids. The precise and sequential delivery of the mixed solutions into tissue culture plates is actuated by a novel mechanism based on the controlled actuation of the acoustophoretic force. The viability of the contactless procedure is tested using a cellular model sensitive to small perturbation of neuronal differentiation pathways. Additionally, the efficiency of the transfection procedure is compared to standard, container-based methods for both single and double DNA transfection and for different cell types including adherent growing HeLa cancer cells, and low adhesion neuron-like PC12 cells. In all, this work provides a proof of principle which paves the way to the development of high-throughput acoustophoretic biological reactors.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vasileiou
authors.affiliation: Harvard University, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Northwest Labs, B146.40, 52 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Foresti
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Adem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bayram
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dimos
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Poulikakos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrari
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016716:PC12 Cells; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D014162:Transfection / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
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