Gene delivery system uses nanostraws and electrical pulses to engineer cancer-fighting immune cells

Researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a scalable, non-viral technology that efficiently delivers genetic material into human immune cells.

The platform, called Nanostraw Electro-actuated Transfection (NExT), uses tiny hollow nanostructures and electrical pulses to insert a wide variety of biomolecules – proteins, mRNA and gene-editing tools – into immune cells with high efficiency and minimal disruption.

The team, led by Assistant Professor Andy Tay from the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Design and Engineering as well as the Institute for Health Innovation and Technology at NUS, demonstrated that NExT can transfect – that is, deliver genetic material into – more than 14 million immune cells in a single run, including difficult-to-engineer cell types such as gamma-delta T cells, T regulatory cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, natural killer cells and neutrophils which are being developed as alternative immune cell therapies.

NExT makes gene delivery quicker and less damaging, which in turn helps lower manufacturing costs and improve the consistency of engineered cell products, including those used in chimeric antigen receptor-T (CAR-T) cell therapies for cancer. This could potentially widen patient access to advanced treatments that are currently limited by high costs and production challenges.

Image source: Kumar et al. (2025), Biomaterials.