We offer transfection reagents for DNA, siRNA, RNA, and protein delivery, providing a range of options to best suit your transfection experiment:
- DNA delivery—transient and stable transfection used to study gene function and regulation, mutational analysis and biochemical characterization of gene products, effects of gene expression on the health and life cycle of cells, as well as for large scale production of proteins for purification and downstream applications
- RNA delivery—transient transfection allowing the knockdown of gene expression used in protein knockdown studies, phenotype analysis, function recovery, pathway analysis, in vivo knockdown, and drug target discovery
- Protein delivery—CRISPR-Cas9 transfection allows for genome editing in broad applications such as stem cell engineering, gene therapy, tissue and animal disease models, and engineering disease-resistant transgenic plants
When selecting a transfection method, consider the payload you wish to deliver (DNA, RNA, or protein) and the type of cells you want to transfect. Use the tables below to choose between our various cationic-lipid transfection reagents and our electroporation transfection system.
Invitrogen TransfectionSelect™ product selection tool
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Invitrogen transfection reagent selection guide
Continuous cell lines are capable of unlimited proliferative potential, and are generally easier to work with than primary or finite cell cultures. However, because these cells have undergone genetic transformation to become immortalized, their behavior in culture may not necessarily reflect the in vivo situation.
Reagent | DNA | mRNA | RNAi | Co- delivery | CRISPR-Cas9 | Cell type(s) | Adherent or suspension |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lipofectamine 2000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Common and easy-to-transfect cell types | Adherent and suspension | |
Lipofectamine 3000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Workhorse (HeLa) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine LTX | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX | ![]() | ![]() | Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cells | Adherent | |||
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX | ![]() | Neuronal cells, primary cells | Adherent | ||||
Lipofectamine CRISPRMAX | ![]() | Tested in over 20 cell types including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several others | Adherent | ||||
Neon Electroporation | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Suspension | |
Invivofectamine 3.0 | ![]() | ![]() | In vivo delivery to liver following tail vein injection |
Primary cells are isolated directly from the tissue and proliferated under appropriate conditions. As such, they are morphologically and physiologically more similar to an in vivo state. However, they are usually more difficult to culture and transfect than continuous cell lines.
After the first subculture, the primary culture becomes known as a cell line. Cell lines derived from primary cultures have a limited life span (i.e., they are finite), and as they are passaged, cells with the highest growth capacity predominate, resulting in a degree of genotypic and phenotypic uniformity in the population. Therefore, their phenotype is intermediate between primary cells and continuous cultures. The use of such cells is sometimes easier than the use of primary cells, especially for the generation of stably transfected clones.
Reagent | DNA | mRNA | RNAi | Co- delivery | CRISPR-Cas9 | Cell type(s) | Adherent or suspension |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neon Electroporation | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Over 140 cell lines tested; excels in hard-to-transfect cells, primary and stem | Suspension |
Lipofectamine 3000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Workhorse (Hela) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine Stem | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Stem cells (except HSCs) | Adherent and suspension |
Lipofectamine LTX | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine CRISPRMAX | ![]() | Tested in over 20 cells tpes including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several others | Adherent | ||||
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX | ![]() | ![]() | Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cells | Adherent | |||
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX | ![]() | Neuronal cells, primary cells | Adherent |
Continuous cell lines are capable of unlimited proliferative potential, and are generally easier to work with than primary or finite cell cultures. However, because these cells have undergone genetic transformation to become immortalized, their behavior in culture may not necessarily reflect the in vivo situation.
Reagent | DNA | mRNA | RNAi | Co- delivery | CRISPR-Cas9 | Cell type(s) | Adherent or suspension |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lipofectamine 2000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Common and easy-to-transfect cell types | Adherent and suspension | |
Lipofectamine 3000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Workhorse (HeLa) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine LTX | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX | ![]() | ![]() | Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cells | Adherent | |||
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX | ![]() | Neuronal cells, primary cells | Adherent | ||||
Lipofectamine CRISPRMAX | ![]() | Tested in over 20 cell types including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several others | Adherent | ||||
Neon Electroporation | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Suspension | |
Invivofectamine 3.0 | ![]() | ![]() | In vivo delivery to liver following tail vein injection |
Primary cells are isolated directly from the tissue and proliferated under appropriate conditions. As such, they are morphologically and physiologically more similar to an in vivo state. However, they are usually more difficult to culture and transfect than continuous cell lines.
After the first subculture, the primary culture becomes known as a cell line. Cell lines derived from primary cultures have a limited life span (i.e., they are finite), and as they are passaged, cells with the highest growth capacity predominate, resulting in a degree of genotypic and phenotypic uniformity in the population. Therefore, their phenotype is intermediate between primary cells and continuous cultures. The use of such cells is sometimes easier than the use of primary cells, especially for the generation of stably transfected clones.
Reagent | DNA | mRNA | RNAi | Co- delivery | CRISPR-Cas9 | Cell type(s) | Adherent or suspension |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Neon Electroporation | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Over 140 cell lines tested; excels in hard-to-transfect cells, primary and stem | Suspension |
Lipofectamine 3000 | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Workhorse (Hela) through to hard-to-transfect (cancer cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine Stem | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | Stem cells (except HSCs) | Adherent and suspension |
Lipofectamine LTX | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | CHO cells and some primary fibroblast, epithelial and neuronal cells (MEF, HMEC and E18 cells) | Adherent | |
Lipofectamine CRISPRMAX | ![]() | Tested in over 20 cells tpes including iPSC, mESC, N2A, CHO, A549, HCT116, HeLa, HEK293 and several others | Adherent | ||||
Lipofectamine RNAiMAX | ![]() | ![]() | Established cell lines, hard-to-transfect cells, primary cells, stem cells | Adherent | |||
Lipofectamine MessengerMAX | ![]() | Neuronal cells, primary cells | Adherent |
Symbol | Explanation | Symbol | Explanation |
---|---|---|---|
![]() | DNA for expression of protein, shRNA, and miRNA | ![]() | mRNA for expression of protein |
![]() | Non-coding RNA for RNAi inhibition of gene expression | ![]() | Co-delivery for cotransfection of RNAi vectors and siRNAs |
![]() | CRISPR-Cas9 for protein delivery |
Additional transfection reagents to consider
Transfection reagent | Key features & applications of reagent |
---|---|
293fectin Transfection Reagent |
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Cellfectin II Transfection Reagent |
|
DMRIE-C Transfection Reagent |
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ExpiFectamine 293 Transfection Kit |
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ExpiFectamine CHO Transfection Kit |
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FreeStyle MAX Transfection Reagent |
|
Lipofectamine 2000 CD Transfection Reagent |
|
Lipofectamine LTX & Plus Reagent |
|
Lipofectamine Transfection Reagent |
|
Oligofectamine Transfection Reagent |
|
Optifect Transfection Reagent |
|
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