The technique uses a nanopipette to suck out minute volumes of a cell’s contents.
Scientists have developed a device that can take a "biopsy" of a living cell, sampling minute volumes of its contents without killing it. Much research on molecular biology is carried out on populations of cells, giving an average result that ignores the fact that every cell is different. Techniques for studying single cells usually destroy them, making it impossible to look at changes over time. The new tool, called a nanobiopsy, uses a robotic glass nanopipette to pierce the cell membrane and extract a volume of around 50 femtolitres - 0.00000000000005 litres, around one per cent of the cell's contents. It will allow scientists to take samples repeatedly, to study the progression of disease at a molecular level in an individual cell. It can also be used to deliver material into cells, opening up ways to reprogram diseased cells. "This is like doing surgery on individual cells," said Dr Paolo Actis , from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, who developed the technology with colleagues at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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