Programmable delivery of macromolecules using high frequency ultrasound

Intracellular delivery of macromolecules into cells has been a challenging problem because of lipid bilayer in cell membrane. To engineer cells for immunotherapy and regenerative medicine, cell impermeable macromolecules should be introduced inside cells. Various methods for the intracellular delivery have been developed by many researchers. Most of intracellular delivery methods are based on bulk and untargeted mechanism, which requires further analysis and brings the complication after the transfection. We have developed an innovative method for the intracellular delivery of macromolecules using high frequency ultrasound with the center frequency of 215 MHz, entitled acoustic-transfection. This acoustic transfection has the capability of single-cell selectivity, low cytotoxicity, and the modulation of the delivered molecules. We demonstrated programmable gene delivery using acoustic-transfection, which is able to selectively deliver desired molecules into targeted cells. Cell-to-cell interactions and the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells will be benefited by the acoustic-transfection technique.