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Slideshow: Bubbles Oust Viruses in Therapy

Hoping to replace viruses as a means to deliver gene therapy, Dutch researchers are using ultrasound and tiny bubbles to blast DNA into cells. By Erik Baard.
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Current experiments take place in water containers, but future therapies might use the technique in bloodstreams to inject DNA or drugs into cells.Faculty of Applied Physics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands

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A layout of the experiment performed by physicists Philippe Marmottant and Sascha Hilgenfeldt. Ultrasound is produced by a piezoelectric loudspeaker setting the bubble into vibration. Thereby the bubble creates a rapid swirling motion of the fluid, attracting the cells and tearing apart their membranes.

Faculty of Applied Physics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands
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A vesicle (diameter of 80 micrometers) with a fluorescence-marked lipid membrane (top, right) approaches a bubble (marked by the white circle). The vesicle then deforms and fragments, leaving fluorescent debris around the bubble.

Faculty of Applied Physics at the University of Twente, The Netherlands