Model Predictive Control of an Electroporation Process

Electroporation is an elegant means to deliver molecules into the cellular cytoplasm, while simultaneously maintaining cell viability and functionality. Despite extensive research, however, electroporation methods still fall short of the desired efficiency and reliability. We present a model predictive control (MPC) design for enabling highly efficient and reliable electroporation processes. Instead of using one single electrical pulse in current practice, we consider a controlled multi-pulse electroporation based on an MPC framework. The most attractive properties of using MPC design of multi-pulse electroporation are the fast computation of optimal control solutions and the real-time tunability of the electrical field density during the process. We demonstrate the controlled electroporation process through simulation examples.