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- WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters)
- Scientists said on Friday they have created a bionic chip that mixes
human cells with layers of silicon, a device they hope to use in research
and to treat disease.
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- The chip is a sandwich that traps a cell within three
layers of silicon. The cell acts to complete an electrical circuit, and
can be altered -- perhaps to add a new gene -- as part of the process.
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- Yong Huang and Boris Rubinsky of the University of California
at Berkeley say their invention, described in the journal Biomedical Microdevices,
is used for a process called electroporation.
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- "We have developed a micro-electroporation chip
that incorporates a live biological cell in the electrical circuit,"
they wrote in their report.
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- Electroporation is used extensively in genetic engineering
and other forms of research on cells. It uses an electrical current to
open pores in the membranes that surround cells, allowing scientists to
put in new genes or other compounds.
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- The chip integrates the cell, using it to complete the
needed electrical circuit and trapping it in place so the new genes or
compounds can be inserted.
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- "In a typical process, individual cells flow through
the inlet tube to the top chamber between the top and middle layers,"
the researchers wrote.
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- A bottom chamber is kept at a lower pressure, and the
cell is automatically sucked into a hole that connects the two chambers.
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- "The cell becomes trapped in the hole, plugging
the hole," Rubinsky and Huang wrote.
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- "Plugging the hole, the trapped cell effectively
electrically insulates between the top and bottom chamber electrodes
and stops the current."
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- Then the cell is zapped with more current, which causes
pores to open in its membrane.
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- "The cell in the hole becomes part of the electrical
circuit of the chip," the researchers wrote.
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- Once the chemicals or genes are introduced, the cell
is allowed to flow out and another one can take its place.
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- "Because of the low cost of the chip and the possibility
to completely automate the process, it is conceivable that in industrial
operation there could be hundreds of chips operating under computer control,"
they wrote.
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- The chip is transparent in places so researchers can
watch the process under a microscope if they wish.
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- They think the process could eventually be used to treat
diseased cells and then replace them in the body.
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- One of the weaknesses of gene therapy -- which attempts
to use new genes to treat disease -- is that is is hard to make sure
cells actually absorb the new genes.
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- The new process might make it easier to ensure that genes
get into cells.
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- http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20000225_3814.html
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