Numerical study of induced electric field in a microfluidic system for cell electroporation

Abstract

Electroporation represents one of the techniques used for cell research. By membrane permeabilization, biological samples can be introduced into the cells or intercellular content is released for further analysis providing information for diagnosis and treatment. This techniques is achieved in microfluidic systems with microelectrodes that induce a high electric field in the vicinity of cells to generate nanopores in cell membrane. In this paper, a micro-electro-fluidic system with channels and various configurations of electrodes is studied by electrostatic simulation in order to find the electric field distribution that ensures electroporation.