Portal accelerates growth with latest $9M round led by NFX, an expanded DARPA contract, and broad adoption!
Portal accelerates growth with latest $9M round led by NFX, an expanded DARPA contract, and broad adoption!
Mechanoporation
A physical method for putting molecules inside cells. Cells flow through a microfluidic constriction that briefly opens pores in the membrane, cargo diffuses in, and the membrane reseals within seconds — no electrical pulse, no viral vector, no lipid carrier.
Method | How it works | Cargos it handles | Effect on the cell | Practical limit |
Electroporation | Brief electric pulse permeabilizes the membrane. | Most cargo classes. | Wide transcriptional disruption (330+ misregulated genes at q<0.05). Reduced viability and proliferation. | Often requires cell pre-activation to survive the pulse. |
Lipofection / LNPs | Lipid carrier shuttles cargo across the membrane via endocytosis. | Mostly RNA and DNA. | Variable cell-type response; lipid- and endocytosis-dependent toxicity. | Not a route for proteins, RNPs, or small molecules. |
Viral vectors (AAV, lentivirus) | Capsid binds the cell and delivers a packaged genome. | Genes, within a size limit. | Immunogenic; risk of integration or unwanted persistence. | Slow and expensive to produce; cargo size capped. |
Mechanoporation | Cells flow through a constriction; transient pores form by mechanical deformation. | Any cargo class — proteins, RNPs, mRNA, small molecules, DELs, etc. | Effectively no transcriptional disruption (0 misregulated genes at q<0.05). | Cartridge selected per cell type. |
Unstimulated human T cells. No pre-activation required.
At q<0.05, 6h post-treatment vs 330+ for electroporation. DiTommaso 2018, PNAS.
Clinical-scale throughput with MilliBooster.
Mechanoporation is one platform that handles cells and payloads other methods can't. If yours isn't listed, we run feasibility studies.
Crystal Tsui, Sophia Hirsch, Darby Kreienberg, Andrew Larocque, Eleni Rogers, Zhihui Song, Xi Ai, James Vasta, Matthew Robers, Alec Barclay, Armon Sharei