GENE GUN

The Gene Gun or the Biolistic Particle Delivery System, originally designed for plant transformation, is a device for injecting cells with genetic information .The payload is an elemental particle of a heavy metal coated with plasmid DNA. This technique is often simply referred to as biolistics. Another instrument that uses biolistics technology is the PSD-1000/He particle delivery system.
This device is able to transform almost any type of cell, including plants, and is not limited to genetic material of the nucleus: it can also transform organelles, including plastids.

Design & History: The gene gun was originally a Crosman air pistol modified to fire dense tungsten particles. The design was first used on onions to deliver particles coated with a phosphorescent marker gene. Genetic transformation can then be proven when the onion tissue expresses the gene.

Later the design was refined by removing the "surge tank" and changing to nonexplosive propellants. DuPont added a plastic extrusion to the exterior to visually improve the machine for mass production to the scientific community. Biorad contracted with Dupont to manufacture and distribute the device. Improvements include the use of helium propellant and a multi-disk-collision delivery mechanism. Other heavy metals such as gold and silver are also used. Gold may be favored because it has better uniformity than tungsten and tungsten can be toxic to cells, but its use may be limited due to availability and cost.

The primary inventor of the gene gun is horticultural scientist John C. Sanford together with Edward Wolf, who was the Director of Cornell's Submicron Facility at the time but now at Nanofabrication facility. As an electrical engineer, Wolf is familiar with making and using small structures. He bought the Crosman air pistol and performed the first genegun experiments with it in his basement. Sanford would come to his house with the genetic material and then take the transformed cells back to his lab. Horticultural scientist Theodore Klein at Cornell University worked closely with John Sanford on experiments using and proving the genegun. They had support from co-inventor Nelson Allen of the Cornell Nanofabrication Facilities Machine shop who had an instrumental role in changing the genegun from the air pistol prototype to a working scientific device. The rights to commercial use of the gene gun were sold by Wolf, Sanford and Cornell University to DuPont in 1990.