ArticlePLoS biology2020
ElectroPen: An ultra-low-cost, electricity-free, portable electroporator.
Article in PLoS biology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Artificial Muscles: Electrostatic Actuation and Design Tradeoffs.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- OpenPore: A low-cost, portable, battery-powered exponential decay pulse generator for electroporation.HardwareX · 2026Article
- Design and evaluation of low-cost, DIY programmable tissue processor for solvent exchange in biological sample preparation.PloS one · 2026Article
- Tolerability of a piezoelectric microneedle electroporator in human subjects.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2024Article
- An efficient low cost means of biophysical gene transfection in primary cells.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Tissue Nanotransfection Silicon Chip and Related Electroporation-Based Technologies for In Vivo Tissue Reprogramming.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Article
- Lipid-Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Probes for Screening Cell Wall Disruptors.ACS applied materials & interfaces · 2023Article
- Tumor-derived extracellular vesicles as messengers of natural products in cancer treatment.Theranostics · 2022Review
- Low-cost and cleanroom-free prototyping of microfluidic and electrochemical biosensors: Techniques in fabrication and bioconjugation.Biomicrofluidics · 2021Review
- Frugal Science Powered by Curiosity.Industrial & engineering chemistry research · 2021Article
- An ultra-low-cost electroporator with microneedle electrodes (ePatch) for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- SiCTeC: An inexpensive, easily assembled Peltier device for rapid temperature shifting during single-cell imaging.PLoS biology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Electroporation is a basic yet powerful method for delivering small molecules (RNA, DNA, drugs) across cell membranes by application of an electrical field. It is used for many diverse applications, from genetically engineering cells to drug- and DNA-based vaccine delivery. Despite this broad utility, the high cost of electroporators can keep this approach out of reach for many budget-conscious laboratories. To address this need, we develop a simple, inexpensive, and handheld electroporator inspired by and derived from a common household piezoelectric stove lighter. The proposed "ElectroPen" device can cost as little as 23 cents (US dollars) to manufacture, is portable (weighs 13 g and requires no electricity), can be easily fabricated using 3D printing, and delivers repeatable exponentially decaying pulses of about 2,000 V in 5 ms. We provide a proof-of-concept demonstration by genetically transforming plasmids into Escherichia coli cells, showing transformation efficiency comparable to commercial devices, but at a fraction of the cost. We also demonstrate the potential for rapid dissemination of this approach, with multiple research groups across the globe validating the ease of construction and functionality of our device, supporting the potential for democratization of science through frugal tools. Thus, the simplicity, accessibility, and affordability of our device holds potential for making modern synthetic biology accessible in high school, community, and resource-poor laboratories.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.