| To cure diseases at the gene level, therapeutic biomaterials need to enter the cells. However, since the cell membrane is a highly selective structure, its permeability is usually very low. In this thesis, we propose two innovative and efficient methods to increase cell membrane permeability.;The second method to increase cell membrane permeability is based on using microbubble-assisted high centrifugation field. The mechanism of this method relies on the centrifugation-induced collision between microbubbles and cells and the force of the microbubbles bursting. The validity of this method is demonstrated on mammalian cells and plant cells. Theoretical models are built to simulate the interaction between microbubbles and cells in the centrifugation field. The simulation results indicate that intracellular pathways can be created once the relative velocity between the microbubble and cell is beyond a critical value. In addition, cell deformed morphology induced in the centrifugation field and cell mechanical properties are closely related to the resulting increase of cell membrane permeability.;The first method is based on magnetic carbon nanotubes (mCNT). By using atomic force microscope force curve analysis (AFM-FCA) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) images, we successfully develop mCNT from raw materials. Under a magnetic field, mCNT can facilitate cell endocytosis by firmly attaching onto the cell membrane. As a result, the cell membrane permeability of several mammalian cell lines is increased. |
