Sophie de Boer

About Me:

I finished my Bachelor’s degree in ‘Molecular Science and Technology’ and my Master’s degree in ‘Chemical Engineering’ at TU Delft. During my Master thesis, I worked together with Dr. Bijoy Bera on facilitating the wetting transition from the Cassie-Baxter to the Wenzel state on rough surfaces through electrowetting.

Project ‘ROCKET’ Description:

High precision modification of genomes of mammalian cells can be done with systems such as CRISPR-Cas, and can have clinical applications such as treating congenital diseases. However, in mammalian cells the cell membrane prevents the genome editing cargoes from effortlessly entering the cell.

Electroporation is a method which exposes the cell to an electric field in order to disrupt the cell membrane and can allow a range of varying cargo sizes entry to the cell. The low efficiency of electroporation prevents this method from being used in clinical applications, and the efficiency remains low because the mechanisms are unknown.

It was recently shown that the actin cytoskeleton plays an important role in the barrier function of the cell surface. Therefore, through experimental research we hope to reveal the role of the cellular cytoskeleton in membrane electroporation and cargo translocation (abbreviated to ‘ROCKET’).

I am excited to have become a part of the ‘Product and Process Engineering’ group and start as a PhD candidate with Dr. Pouyan Boukany and Dr. Bijoy Bera as my supervisors. This research will be a collaborative effort between Dr. Gijsje Koenderink’s lab at TU Delft and the team of Dr. Lea Rems at the University of Ljubljana.