Unlocking cells with electric fields: The expanding role of in vivo electroporation in therapy and biomedicine.
image: “From ‘Applying Current’ to Precise Delivery: A Holistic View”This illustration provides a comprehensive overview of in vivo electroporation (IVE), highlighting its core structures and diverse applications. By applying brief electric pulses, cell membranes are momentarily “opened,” allowing biomolecules such as DNA, mRNA, proteins, and gene-editing tools to efficiently enter target cells. Coupled with various electrode designs, IVE has been widely adopted in areas including cancer therapy, vaccination, gene therapy, and tissue regeneration, offering a delivery platform that is non-viral, safe, and spatially controllable.
Credit: Nano research, Tsinghua University Press
Efficient and controllable delivery of therapeutic biomacromolecules into living tissues remains a fundamental challenge in modern biomedicine, particularly in gene therapy, cancer immunotherapy, and nucleic acid vaccine development. In vivo electroporation (IVE), a physical, non-viral delivery technology that transiently increases cell membrane permeability using pulsed electric fields, has emerged as a powerful tool for enhancing intracellular transport of nucleic acids, proteins, and gene-editing agents, while maintaining spatial and temporal control.
A research team led by Yao cai and Yuhong Cao has recently provided a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in in vivo electroporation technologies, highlighting key developments that are accelerating the transition of IVE from laboratory research to clinical practice. The review systematically summarizes progress in electrode and device design, pulse parameter optimization, and integrated system development, offering a unified framework to understand how engineering innovations are reshaping electroporation-based therapies.
The team published their review in Nano Research on February 10, 2026.
“In this review, we aim to clarify how recent advances in device architecture, pulse modulation strategies, and intelligent control systems have collectively improved the safety, efficiency, and reproducibility of in vivo electroporation,” said Yao cai, senior author of the review. “By bridging fundamental electroporation mechanisms with emerging biomedical applications, we hope to provide guidance for both researchers and clinicians working to translate this technology into real-world therapies.”
Unlike viral or chemical delivery systems, in vivo electroporation enables localized and dosage-independent delivery without introducing exogenous carriers. This unique advantage has driven its application across a wide range of therapeutic contexts, including electrochemotherapy, DNA and mRNA vaccination, genome editing, and tissue regeneration. The review highlights how advances such as microneedle arrays, flexible and conformal electrodes, and image-guided delivery platforms have significantly reduced invasiveness while improving electric field uniformity in complex tissues.
Beyond hardware innovations, the authors emphasize the importance of pulse waveform design and real-time monitoring in controlling biological outcomes. By fine-tuning pulse amplitude, duration, and repetition, electroporation can be precisely tailored to induce reversible membrane permeabilization for molecular delivery or irreversible effects for tissue ablation. Emerging closed-loop systems that incorporate impedance sensing, computational modeling, and feedback control are further enhancing treatment consistency and safety.
The review also surveys the current landscape of clinical and preclinical studies, illustrating how in vivo electroporation is being integrated into cancer therapy, nucleic acid vaccines, and gene-editing strategies. These examples demonstrate the growing maturity of the technology, while also revealing ongoing challenges related to tissue heterogeneity, standardization, and large-scale clinical implementation.
Looking forward, the authors identify intelligent, patient-specific electroporation platforms as a key direction for future development. “The next generation of in vivo electroporation systems will likely combine advanced device engineering with real-time sensing and algorithm-driven control,” Yao cai noted. “Such integration could enable truly personalized and standardized therapies across diverse clinical applications.”
Other contributors to the review include Yi Weng,Xiangyu Ren,Chaobo Li.
This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFA1201100),National Key Research and Development Program of China(2021YFC2302400）,Chinese Academy of Science（YSBR-010) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32271516).
DOI Link:
https://doi.org/10.26599/NR.2026.94908365
About Nano Research
Nano Research is a peer-reviewed, open access, international and interdisciplinary research journal, sponsored by Tsinghua University and the Chinese Chemical Society, published by Tsinghua University Press on the platform SciOpen. It publishes original high-quality research and significant review articles on all aspects of nanoscience and nanotechnology, ranging from basic aspects of the science of nanoscale materials to practical applications of such materials. After 18 years of development, it has become one of the most influential academic journals in the nano field. Nano Research has published more than 1,000 papers every year from 2022, with its cumulative count surpassing 8,000 articles. In 2025 InCites Journal Citation Reports, its 2025 IF is 9.4 (8.3, 5 years), and it continues to be the Q1 area among the four subject classifications. Nano Research Award, established by Nano Research together with TUP and Springer Nature in 2013, and Nano Research Young Innovators (NR45) Awards, established by Nano Research in 2018, have become international academic awards with global influence.