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Optical reprogramming of human cells in an ultrashort femtosecond laser microfluidic transfection platform
Author(s) -
Uchugonova Aisada,
Breunig Hans Georg,
Batista Ana,
König Karsten
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.201500240
Subject(s) - reprogramming , transfection , induced pluripotent stem cell , femtosecond , microbiology and biotechnology , microfluidics , cell , biology , embryonic stem cell , laser , cell culture , nanotechnology , materials science , gene , genetics , optics , physics
Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell) technology can be used to produce unlimited numbers of functional cells for both research and therapeutic purposes without ethical controversy. Typically, viruses are applied for efficient intracellular delivery of genes/transcription factors to generate iPS cells. However, the viral genomic integration may cause a risk of mutation as well as tumor formation therefore limits its clinical application. Here we demonstrate that spatially shaped extreme ultrashort laser pulses of sub‐20 femtoseconds induce transient membrane permeabilisation which enables contamination‐free transfection of cells in a microfluidic tube with multiple genes at the individual cell level in order to achieve optical reprogramming of large cell populations. We found that the ultrashort femtosecond laser‐microfluidic cell transfection platform enhanced the efficacy of iPS‐like colony‐forming following merely a single transfection.Illustration of the spatially shaped femtosecond laser‐assisted microfluidic cell transfection platform for production of iPS cell colonies.