CellSqueeze

CellSqueeze is a method for deforming a cell as it passes through a small opening, disrupting the cell membrane and allowing material to be inserted into the cell.^[1]

When used for the delivery of transcription factors, the device produced a marked improvement in colony formation compared with other methods like electroporation and cell-penetrating peptides. The method is a high-throughput, vector-free microfluidic platform for intracellular delivery of a wide range of materials, including carbon nanotubes, proteins and siRNA. The technique has been used for over 20 cell types, including embryonic stem cells and naïve immune cells.^[2]

Method

The microfluidics platform is a device made up of channels etched into a wafer through which cells initially flow freely. As they move through the device, the channel width gradually narrows. The cell's flexible membrane allows it to change shape, allowing it to squeeze through. The forced rapid change in cell shape temporarily creates holes in the membrane, without damaging or killing the cell.

While the cell membrane is disrupted, target molecules pass enter the cell through the holes in the membrane. As the cell returns to its normal shape, the holes in the membrane close. Virtually any type of molecule can be delivered into any type of cell.^[3]

Applications

Applications have focused on immune cells, delivering:

• anti-HIV siRNAs for blocking HIV infection in CD4+ T cells^[4]
• whole protein antigen and enabling MHC class I processing/presentation in polyclonal B cells, facilitating B cell-based vaccine approaches.^[5]

Commercialization

The process was originally developed by Armon Sharei, in the lab of Langer and Jensen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[6] In 2014 Sharei founded SQZ Biotech^[7] to demonstrate the technology. That year, SQZ Biotech won the $100,000 grand prize in the annual startup competition sponsored by Boston-based accelerator MassChallenge.^[8]

Boeing and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space CASIS awarded the company the CASIS-Boeing Prize for Technology in Space—worth more than $200,000—to support the use of CellSqueeze on the International Space Station (ISS). This was the largest total prize awarded to a single company in the accelerator’s history. Named one of Ten World Changing Ideas by Scientific American, the CellSqueeze platform enables scientists to manipulate cells with unprecedented simplicity ushering in new discoveries.^[9]

See also

• Transfection

References