YOU CAN BUILD THE MACHINE THAT PUSHES DNA INTO LIVING CELLS
An open-source electroporator that costs 85 Canadian dollars and runs on two batteries, published in a peer-reviewed journal and tested side by side with the commercial unit.
by Thomas Nesmith, Gagan D. Gupta and Darius G. Rackus
ScienceOpen-hardware
Built with3D printing
- difficulty
- ●●●●○
- time
- a weekend-plus
- license
- CC-BY-4.0
- repo
- repo FINISHED0 stars
●●●●○ · a weekend-plus · CC-BY-4.0 · 0 stars · repo FINISHED
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
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COMPAREE VERDICT
OpenPore is a laboratory electroporator that delivers 0 to 330 volt exponential decay pulses from two ordinary batteries, designed by researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University and published in HardwareX. It is not a weekend curiosity project: it is a working research instrument, tested with commercial cuvettes and measured against a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser, with transfection efficiencies slightly lower than the commercial unit due to the shorter pulse from its smaller capacitance. The build is a 3D printed chassis holding a hand-wired protoboard circuit, a voltmeter module, switches and a printed cuvette holder. The design files are complete and peer-reviewed, but there are no Gerber files, so you will spend time translating the schematic onto protoboard. This is the one thing most likely to go wrong: if you have never built a circuit from a schematic before, this is not the project to start with. The authors put the device at about 85 Canadian dollars, where commercial electroporators cost thousands, but this is for someone who already knows what electroporation is, has access to cuvettes and cells, and is comfortable working with a capacitor charged to 330 volts. If you meet all three, the files are open and the work is already done.
IN THE REPO
GOOD TO KNOW
- —Full chassis STL and DXF files, cuvette holder geometry, and supplementary figures are on OSF under CC BY 4.0.
- —The PCB is NOT supplied as gerbers. You build the perfboard circuit from the schematic and bill of materials in the open access paper.
- —The paper is peer-reviewed and published in HardwareX (DOI 10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00730).
- —The design carries OSHWA open hardware certification UID CA000065.
- —Licence is Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which allows commercial use with attribution.
- —The circuit stores charge at up to 330 volts, so safe discharge handling is required before touching anything.
Parts to buy
10 itemsFrom our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.
Can I build this?
Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.
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Start here
Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.
- 1.Read the open access paper (The schematic, bill of materials and safety notes are in the paper. Start here.)
- 2.Download the design files from OSF(Chassis STL and DXF, cuvette holder STL and DXF, cut patterns and supplementary figures are at doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/642MV.)
- 3.Source the components from the bill of materials(The paper lists every part with supplier codes. Budget 85 CAD, though some parts may be substituted depending on availability.)
- 4.Build the perfboard circuit from the schematic(This is the step that will take the most time. Lay out the circuit carefully and check voltages before charging the capacitor.)
KNOWN ISSUES
- The PCB is not provided as gerbers. You build the circuit on perfboard from the schematic in the paper. If you have never done this, find a friend who has.
- The circuit stores charge at up to 330 volts. Always discharge the capacitor before touching the board. The paper describes the safe discharge procedure.
- Transfection efficiency is slightly lower than the Bio-Rad Gene Pulser due to the shorter pulse from the smaller capacitance. If your experiment needs the longer pulse, this may not be the right tool.
- Standard 0.4 cm electroporation cuvettes are not included. You will need to source these separately, and they are consumables.
- This is a laboratory instrument. If you do not already have cells, reagents and a protocol, the electroporator is only half the picture.
- The microfluidic version is shown in the paper but requires additional fabrication (aluminium electrodes, coverslip glass, microfluidic channel). The standard cuvette version is the simpler starting point.
Is this actually comparable to the commercial unit?
The authors tested it side by side with a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser, transfecting human U-2 OS cells with a GFP plasmid in standard 0.4 cm cuvettes at 160–240 V. Efficiencies were comparable but slightly lower, which they attribute to the smaller capacitance producing a shorter pulse. Plotted against energy density, both machines fall on the same curve.
Why is the PCB not provided as gerbers?
The circuit is built on perfboard, not a custom PCB. The schematic and bill of materials are in the paper, and you solder it by hand. This keeps the cost low but adds time.
Can I use this outside a lab?
Yes, it runs on two batteries (a 1.5 V AA for the charging circuit and a 9 V for the voltmeter), so it is portable and does not need mains power; the authors note it is small enough to use inside a biosafety cabinet or fume hood. You still need cuvettes and cells.
What is the actual voltage range?
0 to 330 volts, delivering an exponential decay pulse. The voltage is set manually with a charge switch and displayed on a digital voltmeter.
Is the design certified?
Yes, it carries OSHWA open hardware certification UID CA000065, and the files are released under CC BY 4.0.
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Discussion1
FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM
Efficiencies came close to a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser from a device the authors put at about 85 Canadian dollars, running on one AA cell for the charging circuit and a 9 volt battery for the voltmeter. If you were setting up a low-resource lab, what would you run first?
Thomas Nesmith, Gagan D. Gupta and Darius G. Rackus
Thomas Nesmith, Gagan D. Gupta and Darius G. Rackus are researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University. They published OpenPore in HardwareX as a low-cost, portable, battery-powered electroporator that can also drive custom chambers such as microfluidic devices.
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DISCLAIMER
- Comparee is not the author of the projects featured here. All rights to each project belong to its creator — every page links to the original source, and we never host creators’ files.
- Information is provided without warranty and may become outdated as projects evolve. Prices are indicative bands only — always check the creator’s parts list for current costs.
- Building and operating any project is at your own responsibility. Protective equipment, safe workshop practice and compliance with local regulations are the builder’s responsibility.
CompareeTEAM1mo agoedited
Practical notes from our verification: the paper is peer-reviewed and published in HardwareX, and the files are on OSF under CC BY 4.0 with OSHWA certification UID CA000065. The single biggest time sink is not the printing, it is building the circuit on protoboard from the circuit diagram — the authors advise keeping traces as short as possible, so if you have never translated a schematic onto protoboard before, budget an extra evening and check every connection twice. The authors compared it against a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser using human U-2 OS cells in 0.4 cm cuvettes, in triplicate across 160 to 240 volts, and found comparable but slightly lower efficiencies, which they attribute to the smaller capacitance (120 µF versus 125 µF on the Gene Pulser) and so a shorter pulse. That is an honest comparison, not marketing. The circuit stores charge at up to 330 volts, so read the safe discharge procedure in the paper before you charge it the first time. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.