UPSET (Ultrashort Pulsed Systems Electroperturbation Technology)

Semiconductor and Electrobionic Engineering

Home --> UPSET

Projects
MOSIS
EE 327
Electrobionics
USC Pulsed Power
UPSET
ZSAPPS
Reference
Go to electrobionics.org
for Vernier's links to
Biology
Chemistry
Electronics
MEMS
Physics
Quotations
Other links
Personal Data
Curriculum vitae
Contact
Publications
Home

Index

Cell Shocker

Illustration by Michael Klein
USC Trojan Family Magazine, Autumn 2004, p. 20

The day shall not be up
so soon as I,
To try the fair adventure
of tomorrow.
Dauphin Lewis -
King John, Act v, Sc. v

UPSET

Pulsed power in biology --- analysis and therapeutics.

Cell population and single-cell studies in progress.

Less --- and More! --- than Electroporation
Electric field pulses of relatively long duration (microseconds) with relatively long rise and fall times (tens of nanoseconds) and relatively low amplitude (100 kilovolts per meter) produce biological effects at the cellular level primarily as a result of the formation of openings in the external membrane of the cell through the process of electroporation.

High-field pulses with widths substantially less than the charging time of the plasma membrane and nanosecond or sub-nanosecond rise times are expressed across intracellular structures and can affect cells in dramatically different ways.

A perturbed cell
A perturbed membrane

Membrane Electrophysics
UPSET (Ultra-short Pulsed Systems Electroperturbation Technology) pulses cause a rearrangement of phospholipids in the cytoplasmic membrane.

Intracellular Calcium Distribution
Nanoelectropulses induce release of calcium from intracellular compartments within milliseconds of pulse exposure.

Perturbation of Physiological Homeostasis
Disturbance by ultrashort pulsed electric fields of cytoplasmic compartments, cytoskeletal attachments, nuclear, mitochondrial, and plasma membranes, and the configuration of the endoplasmic reticulum may have specific, dose-dependent effects that are complex and largely uncharacterized functions of pulse width, amplitude, frequency, and pattern.

Caspase Activation
Unique proteolytic enzymes are activated in cells after exposure to UPSET pulses. These caspases (cysteine aspartate-specific proteases) are the effectors and executioners of apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Cytological Changes
UPSET exposure causes changes in cytoplasmic volume, granulation of the nucleus, and blebbing of the plasma membrane.

MOSIS UPSET USC Pulsed Power Group Page ZSAPPS

Home

Tom Vernier
MOSIS
Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
4676 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey, California 90292-6695 USA
Email: vernier@mosis.org
URL: http://www.mosis.org/
Phone: -------------- Fax: --------------

Last revised 2005 OCT 02