Photothermal nanoblade for large cargo delivery into mammalian cells

We report a photothermal nanoblade that utilizes a metallic nanostructure to harvest laser pulse energy and convert it into a localized explosive vapor bubble, which rapidly punctures a lightly-contacting cell membrane via high-speed fluidic flows and induced transient shear stress. Integrating the metallic nanostructure with a micropipette, the nanoblade generates a micron-sized membrane access port for delivering concentrated cargo (5×10⁸ bacteria/ml) with high efficiency (46%) and cell viability (>;90%) into mammalian cells. Additional biologic and inanimate cargo over 3-orders of magnitude in size including DNA, 200 nm polystyrene beads to 2 μm bacteria have been delivered into multiple cell types.