Electrostatic Modulation of Signaling at the Membrane Waveform- and Time-Dependent Electric Control of ERK Dynamics

Abstract

The dynamics of extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling regulates a wide variety of stimulated cellular processes and plays an important role in cell survival, motility, differentiation and proliferation. Here we show that a new range of alternative current electric field (AC EF) in the tens of KHz could non-invasively activate EGFR-Ras-ERK signaling pathway with precise timing and single-cell resolution, where electroporation or Faradaic processes have been deliberately avoided by using high-k dielectric passivated microelectrodes.