Artificial fusion between specific cells is a valuable tool for studying various key aspects in biology and biomedicine, either for basic scientific research or for clinically relevant therapeutic applications. A recently developed technique for artificial induction of cell fusion, termed plasmonic cell fusion, uses femtosecond laser pulses for resonant irradiation of specific cells that were targeted by specific gold nanoparticles. The pulse-particle interactions locally destabilize the cell membranes, leading to an efficient, widespread fusion only between the targeted cells. The talk will present a summary of the various experiments and demonstrations of plasmonic cell fusion for basic research and for addressing important clinical challenges, including stimulating of an immune response by fusing together malignant and immune-system cells, treating muscle injuries by fusing together fibroblasts and skeletal muscle cells, and more.
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