Bed of Needles

Researchers developing life-changing pharmaceuticals often face a challenge: how to actually put their chemicals inside living cells? One new method (pictured) sounds like something out of a horror movie. Human cells (coloured pink) were dropped onto a bed of razor-sharp needles, 9000 times smaller than a bed of nails. These ‘nanoneedles’ (green) pierce each cell’s membrane in thousands of places, injecting tens of thousands of cells at once with biomolecules like DNA and proteins. Remarkably, the cells remain alive and healthy after their ordeal, and continue to grow once the biodegradable nanoneedles have melted away. Sculpted out of silicon using a technique called photolithography, nanoneedles have been tested on living tissues as well. Pressed into a mouse’s skin and muscle, they delivered biomolecules encouraging new blood vessels to grow. There’s every hope that nanoneedles could perform similar jobs in human tissues – just imagine having a hundred thousand needles at once!

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

Writer

A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image by Ciro Chiappini and Matt Landry
• Imperial College London
• Copyright held by Nature Publishing Group
• Research published in Nature Materials, April 2015