ABSTRACT
In the late 1960s, electrical pulses were shown to have a lytic e ect on a cell by irreversible disruption of the cell membrane (Sale and Hamilton, 1968). In later decades, it was seen that the modi cation of the electrical pulse parameters resulted in transient and reversible permeabilization of cell membranes. is could be used to introduce plasmid DNA to both eukaryotes and prokaryotes in vitro (Auer et al., 1976; Neumann et al., 1982); later, its use for in vivo applications was described. Cell or tissue electroporation can allow the transfer of biomolecules and chemicals alike from extracellular to intracellular locations by electronically disrupting the lipid bilayer to create short-lived pores in the cell membrane (Kinosita and Tsong, 1977). ese pores e ectively act as channels through which these molecules can passively travel into the cell.
