Electroporated recombinant proteins as tools for in vivo functional complementation, imaging, and chemical biology

Electroporation is typically used to transfer DNA into cells by increasing the permeability of cell membranes. The groups of Stefano Maffini and Andrea Musacchio now found a way to make electroporation accessible for the delivery of single polypeptides and multi-subunit protein assemblies to cells.   This very promising method is well-suited to deliver synthetic and chemically modified versions of functional proteins and, therefore, constitutes a promising tool for applications not only in cell biology, but also in chemical and synthetic biology.