Lipofection

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Lipofection (or liposome transfection) is a technique used to inject genetic material into a cell by means of liposomes which are vesicles that can easily merge with the cell membrane since they are both made of a phospholipid bilayer. Lipofection is a lipid-based transfection technology which belongs to biochemical methods including also polymers, DEAE dextran and calcium phosphate. The main advantages of lipofection are its high efficiency, its ability to transfect all types of nucleic acids in a wide range of cell types, its ease of use, reproducibility and low toxicity. In addition this method is suitable for all transfection applications (transient, stable, co-transfection, reverse, sequential or multiple transfections…), high throughput screening assay and has also shown good efficiency in some in vivo models.