Electroporation cuvettes for automation

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to an electroporation device that may include many electroporation units and electroporation systems that can be used in an automated environment, e.g., as one station or module in a multi-station or multi-module cell processing environment.

We claim: 
     
         1 . An automated cell processing system comprising:
 a growth module;   an electroporation module comprising an automated liquid handling device and a multi-unit electroporation module, wherein each electroporation module comprises
 a housing configured to engage with a pipette from the automated liquid handling device; 
 an electroporation cuvette comprising an electroporation chamber defined by walls and wherein the electroporation cuvette is configured to receive a liquid from the automated liquid handling device; and 
 a sipper in fluid communication with the electroporation chamber, wherein the sipper is configured for intake and output of a sample comprising cells to be electroporated in the electroporation cuvette; and 
   a processor.   
     
     
         2 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the pipette is an automatic air displacement pipette. 
     
     
         3 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the pipette is a multi-channel pipette. 
     
     
         4 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the sample comprises bacterial cells. 
     
     
         5 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the sample comprises mammalian cells. 
     
     
         6 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid comprises one or more materials to be electroporated into the cells selected from nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, hormones, cytokines, chemokines, drugs, or drug precursors. 
     
     
         7 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 6 , wherein the liquid comprises nucleic acids. 
     
     
         8 . The automated processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the liquid comprises at least one reagent of an RNA-directed nuclease editing system. 
     
     
         9 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to read an optical density (OD) of the cells in the growth module. 
     
     
         10 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to instruct the growth module that the cells have reached a target OD. 
     
     
         11 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to provide input for the pipette to move the cells into the electroporation module after cell growth in the growth module. 
     
     
         12 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to provide input for each electroporation module for dispensing of reagents via the automated liquid handling device. 
     
     
         13 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to provide input for each electroporation module for the time, voltage or waveform for electroporation. 
     
     
         14 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , further comprising a storage module. 
     
     
         15 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 14 , wherein the storage module stores the cells at 4° C. or lower temperatures. 
     
     
         16 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , further comprising a filtration module. 
     
     
         17 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , further comprising a nucleic acid assembly module. 
     
     
         18 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 17 , further comprising a nucleic acid purification module. 
     
     
         19 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 1 , further comprising a separation and concentration module. 
     
     
         20 . The automated cell processing system of  claim 19  further comprising a recovery module.