Ion irradiation in liquid of μm3 region for cell surgery

Abstract

We present here a cell surgery scheme involving selective inactivation or disruption of cellular structures. Energetic ions are injected into a cell through a tapered glass capillary like a microinjection method. A slight but essential difference from microinjection is that a thin window is prepared at the outlet so that no liquid material can flow in or back through the outlet while still allowing energetic ions to penetrate into the cell. An ∼MeV He ion beam from such a capillary having 10μm outlet diameter inactivated a selected volume (∼μm3) of fluorescent molecules located in a HeLa cell nucleus.