Microfluidic device for simultaneous pulsed electric field electroporation and dielectrophoresis studies of single biological cells

We present a microfluidic device able to electroporate and measure the resultant changes in dielectric properties of single biological cells. The device can measure the dielectrophoresis (DEP) response of the electroporated cell from a few seconds after exposure to electroporating pulses. Studying electroporation at the single cell level can provide insight on the electroporation process as well as a method of differentiating cellular state (e.g. normal and cancerous). Moreover, combining electroporation and dielectric characterization into a single device eliminates the need for post-sample analysis as required in techniques such as fluorescence cytometry. Experiments performed on Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells demonstrate the ability of the device to detect changes in the DEP response of individual cells immediately after being exposed to microsecond duration electroporating pulses.