Fayetteville, Arkansas (July 10, 2010)— Vegrandis^™ has received a $200,000 award from the National Institutes of Health to demonstrate the feasibility of using novel carbon-based nanopipettes (CNPs) for precise and controlled microinjection of material into individual cells and to allow electrical measurement of variations in cell membrane potential upon penetrating the cell. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a unique nanopipette device which can penetrate and inject a cell, while simultaneously measuring its electrical properties. The technology is exclusively licensed from the University of Pennsylvania.

A CNP consists of a pulled glass capillary tube with an exposed carbon tip having a diameter ranging from tens to hundreds of nanometers. The entire interior of a glass capillary tube is coated with carbon film, ending in a carbon tip much smaller than the terminal end of a glass micropipette. Pulled glass micropipettes without this carbon coating and tip are currently used for individual cell penetration, but are many times larger than CNPs and clog and break more easily.

CNPs offer significant advantages over traditional glass micropipettes such as smaller size (minimal damage to cells and ability to probe organelles), higher durability (the carbon tip bends when glass micropipettes tend to break), better mechanical properties, potential to carry out electrophysiological measurements at the same time as injection, and their commercial potential to be competitive with glass micropipettes. Given their durability, CNPs offer higher efficiency and lower cost, on a per cell basis, than their glass counterparts. CNPs also show great potential for automation because the cell's penetration can be sensed through an electrical signal. The carbon film coating provides an electrically conducting path the full length of the carbon nanopipette.

The feasibility of CNPs to inject into the cytoplasm and nucleus of cells with higher cell survival rates will also be tested and compared to that of commercially available micropipettes during this year-long project.