A new electro-treatment flow cell design is proposed. This flow cell will be cable of performing electroporation, electrofusion, and electroinsertion. These processes can be used for therapeutic modification of erythrocytes and other types of cells. The proposed flow cell will provide many advantages including: 1) control of the orientation of asymmetric cells within flowing systems: 2) potential for increased electroporation efficiencies for asymmetric cells such as erythrocytes; 3) separation of cells from the electroporation electrodes; 4) simple maintenance of cell sterility without the use of sterile electrodes; 5) the ability to electro-treat a wide variety of cell types; and 6) easy scale-up for the preparation of large quantities of modified cells.
Using RBCs and other cell types as carriers of exogenous, agents holds great therapeutic potential. There is a need to develop processes for preparing large quantities of these drug delivery agents.
