THE CHALLENGE

In recent years, there has been increasing use of time-varying electric fields to manipulate the behavior of biological cells. Common applications include electroporation, where cell membrane porosity is increased, allowing delivery of pharmaceutical compounds and/or genetic material to the cell interior. The US Air Force Research Labs (USAFRL) needs a method to detect the specific temporal, spatial, and amplitude characteristics of the electric field delivered to cells under study.

THE SOLUTION

Nanohmics is working with a team of scientists at the AFRL to develop a transducer array that can be placed under the cellular plate that will read out spatial distribution and magnitude of the applied electric field.

BENEFIT TO CLIENT

Comparisons of biological response results are questionable without detailed knowledge of the electric field exposure. The Nanohmics device would provide a means to directly measure the electric field applied to the biological system. This technology would be the first of its kind in the field of “bioelectrics”, or - the analysis of how biological systems respond to nanosecond pulsed electric fields.