Impalefection

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Front: Scanning electron micrograph of chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) following impalement on a nanofiber array. Background: Optical microscope image of a transformed colony of CHO expressing green fluorescent protein from nanofiber delivered plasmids 22 days following impalement upon DNA modified nanofiber array.

Impalefection is a method of gene delivery using nanomaterials, such as carbon nanofibers, nanotubes, nanowires Ref.1. Needle-like nanostructures are synthesized perpendicular to the surface of a substrate. Plasmid DNA containing the gene, intended for intracellular delivery, is attached to the nanostructure surface. A chip with arrays of these needles is then pressed against cells or tissue. Cells that are impaled by nanostructures can express the delivered gene(s).

[edit] Etymology

Similar to transfection, the term is derived from two words - impalement and infection.

[edit] References

1. Tracking gene expression after DNA delivery using spatially indexed nanofiber arrays McKnight, T.E., A.V. Melechko, D.K. Hensley, D.G.J. Mann, G.D. Griffin, and M.L. Simpson, . Nano Letters, 2004. 4(7): p. 1213-1219

[edit] External links

• "An Attempted Nanowire Impalefection of Nerve Cells"
• "Intracellular integration of synthetic nanostructures with viable cells for controlled biochemical manipulation"

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