We designed and built an electric pulse generator based on the Blumlein configuration able to generate both bipolar and unipolar high-voltage pulses with repetition rates up to 1.1 MHz. The new design was built, tested, and its performance was tested in experiments. Its flexibility will allow for efficient investigation of the role of pulse repetition rate and polarity on permeabilization of both of the plasma membrane and the organelle membranes.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7346772
We developed a time-dependent finite-element model of a realistic irregularly shaped cell in an electric field that allows to simulate the induced membrane voltage and the resulting membrane electroporation. The model incorporates a membrane conductivity dependent both on voltage and time, and predicts electroporation much more realistically than the earlier steady-state models, including a better estimation of electroporated membrane regions. Another advantage of our approach is the possibility of direct comparison of calculations and experiments, as both can be performed on the same cell.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7101524
We demonstrated that electrophoretic low-voltage pulses increase gene electrotransfer under conditions of low plasmid concentration and/or when DNA mobility is limited (e.g. in vivo by the extracellular matrix), while for high concentrations of the plasmid typically used in vitro, low-voltage pulses do not play an important role.
COBISS.SI-ID: 6679380
We have demonstated that the planar lipid bilayer voltage breakdown can be determined by applying a linear rising signal. By fitting the viscoelastic model to the acquired data, we determine the mechanical properties of planar lipid bilayer. The method was tested on planar lipid bilayers from mixtures of POPC and POPS lipid molecules. The results are comparable with the data published earlier with other methods.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7207764
We developed a model of paper-based data collection (PDC) and internet-based electronic data collection (EDC) in clinical trials and used it to estimate the cost differences between the two processes. We identified the subprocesses that affect the duration and costs of the data collection the most, and the largest difference was found in the data management subprocess. For the sample clinical trial considered in our simulation study we estimate that EDC decreased data collection costs by 55%, while for other scenarios the savings ranged from 49% up to 62% compared to the analogous PDC process.
COBISS.SI-ID: 7082836