Semiconductor Electrochemical Imagers for Cell Sensing

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In the proposed program, we design semiconductor chips that can take pictures of living cells. However, we do not use light to look at cells, we use charge. This is a unique approach and gets around some of the issues scientists have traditionally faced when imaging cells with light. Although approaches using light are able to take pictures of very small cells (on the order of micrometres), purely electronic imaging methods are limited in how small a cell they can “see”. In our work, we improve the resolution of “cameras” designed to take electronic pictures of cells. We do this by building our camera with the same semiconductor technology as that used to make chips for virtually all computers and smartphones. This technology contains very small electronic components that can detect minute changes in the charge inside and surrounding a cell. We can more accurately detect these small changes in charge and form an image of the cell when the cell is placed directly on the surface of the chip. In addition, not only can we take pictures of cells, we can watch them as they move, grow, and even communicate with other cells around them. In this proposal, we develop new kinds of semiconductor circuits that image cells. We attempt to make these imaging circuits smaller, faster, and more accurate so that we can view progressively smaller cells. In addition to making new circuits, we develop better ways for live cells to interact with the surface of the semiconductor. Our work opens up the possibility of making charge-based cell cameras that can be used as a tool to identify diseases. Some cells, like bacteria, can form very thin films on surfaces, which could make people sick if touched. This is especially a problem in hospitals where a medical instrument, like a catheter, contaminated with a bacterial film could make a patient very ill. One of our long-term goals is to build a camera that could see these films and notify hospital staff to prevent illnesses from spreading. To achieve our goals, we will train doctoral, Master's, and undergraduate students to design semiconductor chips that can image cells using electrochemical sensing methods. We will also work with technicians who are experts in growing cells so that we can accurately test the prototype cell cameras we make. We expect that that technology we develop will one day be integrated into various medical instruments manufactured by companies in Canada and around the world. In the shorter term, we believe our technology could be used by life science researchers to study cells in non-traditional ways, providing new insights into cell behaviour.