Combining nebulization-mediated transfection and polymer microarrays for the rapid determination of optimal transfection substrates

In this manuscript, we report how transfection efficiencies vary as a function of the substrate upon which cells adhere using a polymer microarray platform to allow rapid analysis of a large number of substrates. During these studies, traditional transfection protocols were nonsatisfactory, and thus we developed an approach in which an ultrasonic nebulizer was used to dispense lipoplexes onto cell-based microarrays in the absence of liquid. Under these conditions, droplets were directly deposited onto the cells thereby enhancing transfection. This approach was successfully applied to the transfection of various cell lines immobilized on a library of polyacrylates and permitted the identification of highly efficient transfection/polymer combinations, while showing that specific polymer-cell interactions may promote the efficacy of chemical transfection.