In
recent nanobiotechnology developments, a wide variety of functional
nanomaterials and engineered biomolecules have been created, and these
have numerous applications in cell biology. For these nanomaterials
to fulfill their promises completely, they must be able to reach their
biological targets at the subcellular level and with a high level
of specificity. Traditionally, either nanocarrier- or membrane disruption-based
method has been used to deliver nanomaterials inside cells; however,
these methods are suboptimal due to their toxicity, inconsistent delivery,
and low throughput, and they are also labor intensive and time-consuming,
highlighting the need for development of a next-generation, intracellular
delivery system. This study reports on the development of an intracellular
nanomaterial delivery platform, based on unexpected cell-deformation
phenomena via spiral vortex and vortex breakdown
exerted in the cross- and T-junctions at moderate Reynolds numbers.
These vortex-induced cell deformation and sequential restoration processes
open cell membranes transiently, allowing effective and robust intracellular
delivery of nanomaterials in a single step without the aid of carriers
or external apparatus. By using the platform described here (termed
spiral hydroporator), we demonstrate the delivery of different nanomaterials,
including gold nanoparticles (200 nm diameter), functional mesoporous
silica nanoparticles (150 nm diameter), dextran (hydrodynamic diameters
between 2–55 nm), and mRNA, into different cell types. We demonstrate
here that the system is highly efficient (up to 96.5%) with high throughput
(up to 1 × 106 cells/min) and rapid delivery (∼1
min) while maintaining high levels of cell viability (up to 94%).