September 13, 2022
Keio University
Levitation methods, which enable chemical and biological experiments without containers, may not only become an innovative experimental technique in the future but also have the potential to significantly reduce plastic waste in research settings. A research group at Keio University, consisting of Kodai Arai (a third-year student in the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Science and Technology), Professor Tomonori Sato, and Associate Professor Teruhiko Matsubara of the Department of Biosciences and Informatics, Faculty of Science and Technology, has demonstrated that effective gene transfection into animal cells is possible in a culture medium levitated in the air. They revealed that when a cell suspension was levitated using an ultrasonic standing wave, the cellular uptake of plasmid DNA (pDNA) and the expression efficiency of the transgene were significantly higher than when manipulated in a test tube. Gene transfection is one of the core technologies in cell engineering. This technology is expected not only to reduce plastic waste in laboratories but also to provide new experimental procedures in the field of cell engineering.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the German scientific journal Advanced Science on August 26, 2022 (GMT).
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