- Impalefection
thumb|right|300px|Front: Scanning electron micrograph of Chinese hamster ovary cells (CHO) following impalement on a nanofiber array. Background: Optical microscope image of a transformed colony of CHO expressing green fluorescent protein from nanofiber delivered plasmids 22 days following impalement upon DNA modified nanofiber array.">Impalefection is a method of
gene delivery usingnanomaterial s, such ascarbon nanofiber s,nanotube s,nanowire s Ref.1. Needle-like nanostructures are synthesized perpendicular to the surface of a substrate. Plasmid DNA containing the gene, intended for intracellular delivery, is attached to the nanostructure surface. A chip with arrays of these needles is then pressed against cells or tissue. Cells that are impaled by nanostructures can express the delivered gene(s).Similar to
transfection , the term is derived from two words -impalement andinfection .__TOC__
References
1. Tracking gene expression after DNA delivery using spatially indexed nanofiber arrays
McKnight, T.E., A.V. Melechko, D.K. Hensley, D.G.J. Mann, G.D. Griffin, and M.L. Simpson, . Nano Letters, 2004. 4(7): p. 1213-1219See also
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Nanomedicine External links
* [http://nanobio.ftf.lth.se/~biokurs/projects/projects2006/Neuro_Louise.pdf#search=%22Impalefection%22 "An Attempted Nanowire Impalefection of Nerve Cells"]
* [http://tolik.freescience.org/publications/papers/paper29.htm "Intracellular integration of synthetic nanostructures with viable cells for controlled biochemical manipulation"]
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