text: Sonoporation, or cellular sonication, is the use of sound in the ultrasonic range for increasing the permeability of the cell plasma membrane. This technique is usually used in molecular biology and non-viral gene therapy in order to allow uptake of large molecules such as DNA into the cell, in a cell disruption process called transfection or transformation.  Sonoporation employs the acoustic cavitation of microbubbles to enhance delivery of these large molecules. The exact mechanism of sonoporation-mediated membrane translocation remains unclear, with a few different hypotheses currently being explored. 
  Sonoporation is under active study for the introduction of foreign genes in tissue culture cells, especially mammalian cells.  Sonoporation is also being studied for use in targeted Gene therapy in vivo, in a medical treatment scenario whereby a patient is given modified DNA, and an ultrasonic transducer might target this modified DNA into specific regions of the patient's body. The bioactivity of this technique is similar to, and in some cases found superior to, electroporation. Extended exposure to low-frequency (<MHz) ultrasound has been demonstrated to result in complete cellular death (rupturing), thus cellular viability must also be accounted for when employing this technique.