Spatio-temporally controlled transfection of nucleic acid payloads in cell-culture

There is a critical need in emerging areas of high-throughput screening of large molecule libraries during drug development, to transfect multiple molecules precisely into cells in a specific location within a culture. In this study, we report the novel use of a microelectrode array technology to achieve spatio-temporally controlled transfection of siRNA molecules into fibroblasts using the mechanism of electroporation. Optimal electroporation was achieved using cathodic voltage pulses of approximately 4 V and 10 ms duration, with transfection efficiency of approximately 57% and cell viability of 60%. Further development of this technology for gene and RNAi transfection is envisioned to be useful to make significant advances in the field neurogenomics and high-throughput screening.