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A paintbrush for delivery of nanoparticles and molecules to live cells with precise spatiotemporal control
Summary
Researchers developed a micropipette-based delivery system called microkiss that can precisely apply nanoparticles and molecules onto living cell membranes with micrometer-level spatial precision. The technique enables controlled studies of how cells respond to local stimulation, including membrane mobility and intercellular signaling. While focused on cell biology methods, the technology could support future research into how nanoscale plastic particles interact with biological membranes.
Delivery of very small amounts of reagents to the near-field of cells with micrometer spatial precision and millisecond time resolution is currently out of reach. Here we present μkiss as a micropipette-based scheme for brushing a layer of small molecules and nanoparticles onto the live cell membrane from a subfemtoliter confined volume of a perfusion flow. We characterize our system through both experiments and modeling, and find excellent agreement. We demonstrate several applications that benefit from a controlled brush delivery, such as a direct means to quantify local and long-range membrane mobility and organization as well as dynamical probing of intercellular force signaling.
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