Access to cytoplasm of living single cells by nanofluidic technology

Recently, single cell analysis is becoming a standard for biology and medical fields. For this, ultrasensitive analytical methods are required. However, due to the ultra-small volume of single cells (e.g. ~pL), analysis of analyte inside the single cell was difficult except DNA/RNA which could be amplified by chemical reactions (e.g. PCR). For this, ultimate analytical technologies are next challenges. In this presentation, we will introduce our technology for sampling cytoplasm from living single cells. Nanofluidic channels with size of 10–100 nm were utilized for the sampling, and living single cell sampling was demonstrated for the first time.