Bio‐electrosprays: The next generation of electrified jets

Abstract

Biological electrosprays are rapidly becoming a robust means by which to engineer living organisms for applications ranging from tissue repair to developmental biology. We previously reported the ability to electrospray living organisms without compromising their viability, but found it challenging to achieve stability in the jetting of these organisms as a result of the chemical properties of the living cellular suspensions. Jet stability is required for the generation of a near-mono distribution of droplets, which is necessary for the development of electrospray technology as a "drop and place" biotechnique. Recently, we determined the conditions needed to achieve jet stability and were able to generate droplets with a near-mono distribution (<50 microm). In this communication, we elucidate the relationship between jet behaviour and droplet size under stable jetting conditions, with a view to further reducing the droplet size to deposit a single living cell within a droplet. We believe that this level of resolution will make electrospray jetting superior amongst the jet-based biotechnologies presently being developed for the engineering of biological architectures comprised of living cells.

Bio-electrosprays and Aerodynamically Assisted Bio-jets, Flow Cytometry Concepts for Interrogating Living Cells and Whole Organisms

“…This technology in a materials handling approach has now been demonstrated as a non-electric field driven approach comparable to bio-electro sprays (32). which flows in the outer needle (38,39). However, we were unable to achieve single cells within generated droplets.…”

Development and fertility studies on post-bio-electrosprayed Drosophila melanogaster embryos

“…If jet stability and continuity are required, the use of the coaxial or concentric BES needle system can be explored. 13,14 The results from our preliminary studies indicated that our apparatus required rearranging. Thus, we placed the electrodes ϳ5 cm apart and used voltages starting at ϳ1 kV, while the microdripping of the embryo suspension was initiated at a flow rate of ϳ10 6 m 3 s −1 .…”

Bio‐electrosprayed Living Composite Matrix Implanted into Mouse Models

“…In our hands we have addressed the biological and physical features which have seen fundamental questions such as the viability and functionality of the cells assessed from the genomic to the phenotypic level, [4][5][6][7][8][9] while the physical science elements have seen the fine-tuning of the system for acheiving jet stability and continuity in the number of cells compartmentalised within droplets and residues. [10][11][12][13] In parallel to these studies we have also unveiled the ability to directly form cell-laden fibres from which living scaffolds to membranes are directly formed in either a random or pre-organised fibre orientation as a function of depth. This methodology is now refered to as cell electrospinning.…”