Prof. Damijan MIKLAVČIČ, PhD
University of Ljubljana
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Exposure of biological cells to a sufficiently strong external electric field results in increased permeability of cell membranes, referred to as electroporation. Since all types of cells (animal, plant and microorganisms) can be effectively electroporated, without addition of viral or chemical compounds, electroporation is considered to be a universal method and a platform technology. Electroporation has become a widely used technology applicable to e.g. cancer treatment, gene transfection, food and biomass processing, and microbial inactivation. However, despite significant progress of electroporation-based applications, there is a lack of coordination and interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge between researchers from different scientific domains. Thus, critical mass for new major breakthroughs is missing. This COST Action aims at: (i) providing necessary steps towards EU cooperation of science and technology to foster basic understanding of electroporation, (ii) improving communication between EU research groups, resulting in streamlining European R&D activities, and (iii) enabling further development of new and existing electroporation-based applications by integrating multidisciplinary research teams, as well as comprehensive training for Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs). Results of this COST Action will provide multiple societal, scientific, and technological benefits from improving existing electroporation-based applications and adding new ones in the field of medicine, biotechnology and environment preservation.