Polyimide Membrane Based Cell-electrofusion Chip

A novel flexible cell-electrofusion chip was fabricated using flexible printed circuits board (FPCB) technique, by which microelectrode array was fabricated on the copper foil laminated on the surface of the polyimide membrane. On this chip, cell electrofusion could be carried out at low voltage (< 40 V), and its fusion efficiency (37%) was much higher than those in traditional chemical induced fusion (1%) and electrofusion (5%). Compared with traditional electrofusion method, this chip has many advantages, such as low power supply, simple structure, cheap, convenient for observation, and high-throughput. Furthermore, the good flexibility of the polyimide membrane is an advantage for its integration with other modules (e.g. cell sorting module) to form a micro total analytical system (μ-TAS).