Live-cell-driven insertion of a nanoneedle

We demonstrated the insertion of an intracellular nanoneedle into a single living cell which was caused by a cell-driven force. The celldriven assembly of bio-hybrid micro and nanocomponents offers a potential route in nano-bioengineering research on new fabrication tools of bio-micro electro-mechanical systems (bio-MEMS) without direct mechanical manipulation. We describe the cell-driven self-insertion of a single conductive tungsten nanoneedle of 190nm diameter. A single nanoneedle was fabricated on the bottom of each 15 μm wide glass microwell. A myoblast C2C12 cell migrated into a microwell; within 3 hours, the insertion of a nanoneedle into the cell was observed using a three-dimensional laser scanning confocal microscope. Observation of fluorescence labeled viable cells indicated that no dead cells were present in the microwells during the nanoneedle insertion process. The intracellular nanoneedles were broken after a maximum of 2 days.