Engineered nano-bio interfaces for intracellular delivery and sampling: Applications, agency and artefacts

Emerging Roles of 1D Vertical Nanostructures in Orchestrating Immune Cell Functions

“…High‐aspect‐ratio nanostructures are now providing major advantages in precise manipulation of increasingly complex cellular processes, assisting the translation into clinical applications such as tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, biosensing, and cancer immunotherapies. [ 2–5 ] In particular, 1D vertical nanostructures (1D‐VNS)—nanowires, nanoneedles, nanopillars, nanotubes, nanosyringes, nanostraws, nanocones, and nanospikes ( Figure a)—have helped tackle various biological problems such as intracellular recording and genetic interrogation. [ 6–16 ] Unlike other high‐aspect‐ratio nanostructures, such as freestanding carbon nanotubes, 1D‐VNS can be rationally designed and synthesized, via top‐down and/or bottom‐up approaches, with defined key parameters—including topological geometry (pitch, diameter, length), chemical composition, doping, and electronic properties.…”

High Throughput and Highly Controllable Methods for In Vitro Intracellular Delivery

“…Engineered substrates is a term we have chosen to encompass all methods where substrates containing micro-or nanoscale features are used for intracellular delivery. [106][107][108] These substrates are often used to apply localized electroporation to randomly deposited cells, but some can be used with other physical stimuli such as photoporation [109] and possibly sonoporation. These methods include one dimensional nanostructures, patterned electrodes, and substrates containing micro-or nanopores.…”

“…These methods include one dimensional nanostructures, patterned electrodes, and substrates containing micro-or nanopores. [106][107][108] Although these methods can require sophisticated manufacturing processes, many of these processes have already been developed within the microelectronics and microfiltration industries for efficient production at an industrial scale. As such, these substrates are readily scalable and can be widened and stacked to process numerous cells simultaneously, and are inexpensive to produce.…”

Nanoneedle Platforms: The Many Ways to Pierce the Cell Membrane

“…[ 27–30 ] In particular, thin 1D nanostructures, known as nanoneedles or nanowires (NWs), seem to readily penetrate the cell membrane by generating highly localized stresses due to their sharp nanofeatures (diameter of 1–100 nm). [ 31–34 ] Cell penetrating platforms can be differentiated by the number of nanoneedles used and the individual functionality of each nanoneedle. Single nanoneedle‐based devices, especially equipped with atomic force microscopy (AFM) or micromanipulators, [ 35,36 ] have long been deployed to insert into cells and probe or manipulate intracellular activities.…”