Digital Microfluidic Approach for Efficient Electroporation with High Productivity: Transgene Expression of Microalgae without Cell Wall Removal

A unique digital microfluidic electroporation (EP) system successfully demonstrates higher transgene expression than, that of conventional techniques, in addition to reliable productivity and feasible integrated processes. By systematic investigations into the effects of the droplet EP conditions for a wild-type microalgae, 1 order of magnitude higher transgene expression is accomplished without cell wall removal over the conventional bulk EP system. In addition, the newly proposed droplet EP method by a droplet contact charging phenomena shows a great potential for the integration of EP processes and on-chip cell culture providing easy controllability of each process. Finally, the implications of the accomplishments and future directions for development of the proposed technology are discussed.