The art of delivery: uptake into living cells by microwave field induced perturbation of the plasma membrane

强大的技术，允许非侵入性交付的各种化合物，人工操纵细胞功能的可用性是基础研究和潜在的治疗应用必不可少的。细胞膜构成了将分子转运到活细胞中的主要屏障。它需要一种跨学科的方法来开发新的物理技术，以瞬时破坏这种屏障，并允许合成化合物的运输和掺入细胞的分子机制。最近发现的基于微波的穿孔方法有望克服现有技术的现有问题。我们组建了一个跨学科团队来解决这个复杂的问题，其中涉及具有工程和生物学专业知识的科学家。基于我们的概念验证结果，我们建立并测试了一个微波辅助穿孔的原型，该原型允许将荧光标记的肽运输到活细胞中，我们建议通过应用所获得的知识将各种各样的分子运输到活细胞中。此外，我们将测试新开发的技术对细胞生理学的影响，并使用它在活细胞和生物体中真实的时间内操纵和研究细胞生理学。根据我们的研究结果，将制定新物质吸收的指导方针和方案。

The availability of powerful techniques allowing non-invasive delivery of a variety of compounds to artificially manipulate cellular functions is essential for basic research and potential therapeutic applications. The cell membrane constitutes the major barrier for the transport of molecules into living cells. It requires an interdisciplinary approach to develop new physical technologies to transiently disrupt this barrier and allow the transport and incorporation of synthetic compounds into the molecular machinery of cells. The recently discovered microwave based poration process prospects to overcome state of the art problems of established techniques. We have put together an interdisciplinary team to tackle this complex problem that involves scientists with expertise in engineering and biology. Based on our proof-of-concept results in which we built and tested a prototype for microwave assisted poration that allowed the transport of fluorescently labeled peptides into living cells, we propose to profoundly expand this by applying the gained knowledge to transport a wide variety of molecules covering a large size range into living cells. Furthermore, we will test the effect of the newly develop technique on the cell’s physiology and use it to manipulate and investigate cellular physiology in real time in living cells and organisms. Based on our results, guidelines and protocols for the uptake of new substances will be established.