Bioelectricity is the pervasive ‘force’ that drives all life on earth, it is the subject of intense study, of countless sci-fi horrors and forms the basis of the work presented in this thesis. This thesis explored bioelectricity through the complex interplay of cellular electrophysiological properties in the cellular electrome; through three intertwined biological processes. Electrophysiology was assessed through dielectrophoresis and zeta-potential analysis, where the experimental chapters focused on; blood grouping, chondrogenesis and the mechanism of cell migration in an EF through an imposed ion gradient.

The study of electrophysiology in blood cells as a function of ABO-Rh group and gender found a proportional relationship between ζ, σ_cyto and ESR and haematocrit. Membrane properties G_eff and C_eff were most affected by ABO-Rh blood type. Secondly, macrophage migration in an imposed ion gradient, representative of proposed localised ion gradients induced by nanoscale polarisation in an EF. K⁺ ion gradients significantly biased migration towards increased ion concentration. This behaviour exhibited ion specificity, where gradients in Na⁺ and Cl^- did not elicit the same results. The final chapter examined the electrophysiological changes in avian chondrogenesis and found that electrophysiological properties were similarly affected by cell differentiation, rooted in V_m.

Together these chapters demonstrated the pervasiveness of the cellular electrome in major biological processes, illustrated its real-world effects and the influence of intracellular properties on cell-cell interactions. Understanding the impact of blood type and gender may inform the susceptibility to certain pathologies. Macrophage migration towards elevated K⁺, characteristic of infection and cell damage, posited this as a signalling mechanism and further as a mechanism for electrotaxis; this migration was in line with anodal migration in an electric field. Lastly, this work provided scope for cell differentiation stage identification using the 3DEP, as pre- and post-mitotic chondrogenic cells exhibited significantly different ion channel related properties.