An Impedance-Based Assay Microsystem for Real-Time High Throughput Study of Single Cells

0933653 Zhang生物传感/CBET计划的NSF奖项支持波士顿大学的Zhang教授通过使用微/纳米系统将生物反应转换为电信号，并进一步实施基于阻抗的实时检测系统，以实现高通量筛选（HTS），从而在细胞甚至更精细的水平上进行生物/生物化学传感。 本研究的目的是设计和测试一个多学科的微/纳米系统，用于将单个细胞定位到一个分析矩阵中，以实时监测细胞的活力和响应与小型化HTS系统。在所提出的微/纳米系统中，现有的电细胞-基底阻抗传感（ECIS）技术将被修改用于单细胞监测。 为了拓宽可用电池类型的范围，将采用电化学阻抗谱（EIS）来表征电池的电特性和无电池系统。为了精确地将单个细胞定位到正确尺寸的工作电极上，将利用交流电动力学（ac EK）并将其集成到拟议的微/纳米系统中。高度灵敏，但简单和鲁棒的基于阻抗的生物传感器的开发，集成到小型化系统中，将使单细胞的实时高通量研究成为可能，最好地监测活细胞以观察，表征，并在细胞甚至更精细的水平上模拟功能行为，以探索生物传感器对不同刺激组合的不同反应的特异性和灵活性，对从生物传感/生物仪器到微/纳米系统的应用领域产生影响，以满足生物医学，环境和安全需求。 在教育方面，该计划将通过合并生物传感和工程教育研究来培养下一代科学/工程领导者，从而影响多样化的学生群体。

0933653ZhangThis NSF award by the Biosensing /CBET program supports work by Professor Zhang at Boston University to pursue biological/biochemical sensing at cellular and even finer levels by converting a biological response to an electrical signal using micro/nanosystems and further implementing an impedance-based real-time assay system for high-throughput screening (HTS). The objective of this research is to design and test a multidisciplinary micro/nanosystem for positioning individual cells into an analyzing matrix for real-time monitoring cell viability and response with a miniaturized HTS system. In the proposed micro/nanosystem, existing electrical cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) techniques will be modified for single cell monitoring. In order to broaden range of usable cell types, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) will be employed to characterize cell electrical properties and a cell-free system. To precisely position individual cells to correctly sized working electrodes, alternating current electrokinetics (ac EK) will be exploited and integrated into the proposed micro/nanosystem.The development of highly sensitive, yet simple and robust impedance-based biosensors, integrated into a miniaturized system will enable real-time high-throughput study of single cells, best monitoring living cells to observe, characterize, and model functional behavior at the cellular and even finer levels so as to explore biosensor specificity and flexibility for distinct responses to different combinations of stimuli, making an impact on fields ranging from biosenisng/bioinstrumentation to micro/nanosystems with applications to the biomedical, environmental, and security needs. Educationally, this program will impact a diverse student population through merging biosensing and engineering education research to train the next generation of scientific/engineering leaders.