Selective pairing and fusion of vesicles using dielectrophoretic tweezers

Abstract

This manuscript describes selective pairing and fusion of biological vesicles using dielectrophoretic (DEP) tweezer. Fusion of biological vesicles have been widely studied for artificial cell system, however, low selectivity of fused vesicle has been problematic. We propose selective pairing and fusion of vesicles such as cell-sized liposomes and giant bacteria using microfabricated DEP tweezer. As DEP force can manipulate cell-sized (approximately 10 μm) objects, for the first time we achieved selective pairing and fusion of the vesicles and in conjunction with electrofusion device. We believe our method will be useful in vesicle fusion studies including material transport and generation of artificial cells.