An integrated micro-chip for cell array positioning, in-situ impedance measurement and electroperation

Abstract

This paper reports a biocompatible microchip integrating function of dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based cell array positioning with in-situ real-time impedance measurement and electroporation (EP) of living cells. The DEP-based cell manipulation [1], impedance measurement [2], and cell electroporation [3] are commonly-used label-free techniques for studying of living cells, but they are generally applied separately and rare to be integrated in one chip due to complex structure and crosstalk among them. In this paper we present a novel microchip, in which the cells are manipulated and trapped onto the electrode array (4×8). The impedance spectroscopy of individual cell trapped on electrode array can be measured in situ and the trapped cells can be also electroporated with a high transfection rate (about 90%).