Very High Throughput Electrical Cell Lysis and Extraction of Intracellular Compounds Using 3D Carbon Electrodes in Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

Here we present an electrical lysis throughput of 600 microliters per minute at high cell density (108 yeast cells per ml) with 90% efficiency, thus improving the current common throughput of one microliter per minute. We also demonstrate the extraction of intracellular luciferase from mammalian cells with efficiency comparable to off-chip bulk chemical lysis. The goal of this work is to develop a sample preparation module that can act as a stand-alone device or be integrated to other functions already demonstrated in miniaturized devices, including sorting and analysis, towards a true lab-on-a-chip.