EP1329502A3 — Method and apparatus for treating materials with electrical fields having varying orientations

USPTO Abstract

In a method of treating membrane-containing material in vitro with electrical fields, a plurality of electrodes (121-128) is arrayed around the material to be treated and is connected to outputs of an electrode selection apparatus (110). Inputs of the electrode selection apparatus are connected to outputs of an agile pulse sequence generator. A treating substance is added to the membrane-containing material. Electrical pulses are applied to the electrode selection apparatus and are routed through the electrode selection apparatus in a predetermined, computer-controlled sequence to selected electrodes in the array of electrodes, whereby the membrane-containing material is treated with the added treating substance and with electrical fields of sequentially varying directions. The routing of applied pulses through the electrode selection apparatus (110) to selected electrodes (121-128) can be done in an enormous number of ways.