Making Science Affordable
An engineer and his group of students have developed a low-cost version of an electroporator – a tool that can be used to penetrate cell membranes. ElectroPen, as it’s called, will enable more researchers to code living cells for any number of scientific applications such as studying drug reactions and modifying DNA.
Typical electroporators cost thousands of dollars, but ElectroPen can be made for just a few collars using a piezoelectric butane lighter. The device delivers a five-millisecond, 2,000- volt burst of electricity to force open the cell membrane, allowing other compounds to be introduced. The students have already used it to modify the DNA of E. coli to produce fluorescent proteins.
ElectroPen has been published as an open source design in keeping with an emerging tradition of “frugal science.” The goal is to make synthetic biology and other scientific research more accessible, particularly in areas where resources are scarce.
For information: Saad Bhamla, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 311 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, CA 30332; phone: 404-894-2856; email: saadb@chbe.gatech.edu; Web site: https://www.bhamla.gatech.edu/ or https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000589