Graphene based Electrical Interface for Cells

单细胞生物，如酵母细胞，在微米尺度的空间中包含了生命过程的完整集合。在这个有限的空间中，细胞过程的复杂性和多样性为基于细胞的传感器和设备的发展提供了机会，其中细胞形成了传感的主动元件。这种感觉是基于观察细胞对施加的刺激的反应。基于细胞的传感器的优势在于它们能够对多种刺激做出反应，包括化学和生物刺激。例如，在大多数安全评估的情况下，威胁是未知的，因此基于单元的传感器将提供对这种难以用特定使用点类型传感器测量的危险的评估。我们的项目旨在利用石墨烯片将细胞反应转化为电信号。薄片与细胞的耦合将使用生物相容的化学物质来实现。具有大表面积的薄片将在细胞表面形成导电通道。薄片下面的细胞将作为一个生物门，由于两个主要作用，它将调节薄片中载流子的流动。1 .细胞与周围环境之间的离子交换；细胞体积、形状和表面应力的变化。由于将观察到细胞的实时反应，其量化将使识别威胁及其对细胞的影响成为可能。未来的能力将扩大到研究治疗分子的效果。使用细胞作为传感元件也将发展成为特定的护理点传感器。这是基于基因工程的，它允许在细胞表面表达针对特定物种的特定受体，从而导致用于使用的传感器阵列的潜在发展。基于细胞的生物传感器在环境监测、生物安全、病原体和毒素筛选、食品工业、药物发现和药理学等领域具有广阔的应用前景。使用这些传感器的商业产品已经被开发出来。快速增长的生物传感器市场（目前超过80亿美元）将受益于这些传感器及其应用的发展。

Unicellular organisms such as Yeast cells contain the complete assembly of life processes in a micron scale space. The complexity and the variety of cellular processes present in this confined space provide opportunities for development of cell based sensors and devices where the cell forms the active element for sensing. The sensing is based on observing the cells response to the administered stimuli. The advantages of the cell based sensors lie in their ability to respond to multiple stimuli, both chemical and biological in nature. For example, in most cases of security assessment the threat is unknown, hence cell based sensors will provide an evaluation of such hazards which are difficult to gauge with specific point of use type sensors. Our program aims to translate cells response into electrical signals using graphene sheets. The coupling of the sheets with the cells will be achieved using bio-compatible chemical species. The sheets with their large surface area will form an electrical conducting pathway on the cell surface. The cell below the sheets will serve as a biological gate that will modulate the flow of charge carriers in the sheets due to two primary effects: 1. Exchange of ions between the cell and its surroundings and 2. The changes in cell volume, shape and surface stresses. As real time response from the cell will be observed, its quantification will enable the identification of both the threat and also its effect on the cell. Future capabilities will be expanded to study effect of therapeutic molecules. The use of cells as sensing element will also be developed into specific point of care sensors. This is based on genetic engineering that allows the expression of particular receptors on cell surfaces that target specific specie, leading to the potential development of an array of sensors for point of use. Cell based biosensors are promising for application in multiple fields such as environmental monitoring, bio-security, pathogen and toxin screening, food industry, drug discovery and pharmacology. Commercial products have been developed using these sensors. The rapidly growing market for bio-sensors (more than $8 billion currently) will benefit from development of these sensors and their applications.