Single Cell Injections

[Tsa'räni]

http://www.physorg.com/news200569801.html

"Duke University physicists have developed a way to produce sharp fluid jets with enough precision that they can inject material into a single, living cell. The technique promises a way to deliver drugs to cells one at a time, which is likely to be very valuable for research involving stem cells and other cellular-level studies."

This is incredibly promising, especially because they think the micro-hole left behind is small enough that it won't damage the cell as a whole.  The range of useful applications for this would be almost unlimited.

[Nyx]

That's cool! But it might have some problems with ensuring that the right amount of the drug enters the cell, since it'd have to be swimming in it. And did they make sure that the solvent doesn't just flush into the cell and blow it up?

Hmm.. I'd love to read a longer article... so many questions

[Nyx]

Eh, off-topic much?

[Taronyu]

Locked for now.

[Skxawng]

Cleaned up and unlocked.

Back on topic: Cool article.

[Taronyu]

That is a very cool article. I, too, wonder at the actual applications, and the costs.

[Tsa'räni]

Thanks for the help.

Here is a more detailed link...

http://physics.aps.org/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.078101.pdf

One very cool thing is that this can probably be adapted to work with plant cells, too.  Plants are notoriously difficult to deal with, and usually respond very rapidly to stress on the outer areas.  Micro and nano puncture studies have shown significant and rapid response to even slight contact within minutes.

With this technique they are witnessing uptake much faster, so if it could be modified to micro rupture plant cell walls, uptake would probably happen before the plant cell could respond.

There are many applications where it might not matter exactly how much of a material was taken into the cell as long as it was above and below certain thresholds.  This could be regulated simply by controlling the amount of induced material in the solution around the cell.  In theory, of course.

[Toruk Makto]

I assume this is expected to replace micro-injection technologies where they use special quartz crystal tubes that are heated and drawn to produce nano-tip hollow needles. There was a company here is Houston that perfected that technology. I say "was" because they aren't around anymore...

[Tsa'räni]

Replace, or perhaps offer an alternative.  There's still lots of work being done with micro and nano puncture needles, and I doubt that will change anytime soon.

Certainly the questions about cost, amount of material uptake, and so on are very valid.  In addition, the cell is severely (temporarily) deformed by the jet, and sometimes neighboring cells don't react well to such disturbances.

Future research will have to refine the technique and start looking at these other considerations.

[Tsäroltxe te Eyrutì Tantse'itan]

That's cool! But it might have some problems with ensuring that the right amount of the drug enters the cell, since it'd have to be swimming in it. And did they make sure that the solvent doesn't just flush into the cell and blow it up?

Hmm.. I'd love to read a longer article... so many questions

Yeah, if the cell lysed that wouldn't be good at all...then the drug may diffuse into other cells not needing it, and damage them.

[Taronyu]

Necropost. Locked.