Semiconductor Electrochemical Imagers for Cell Sensing

在这个计划中，我们设计了可以拍摄活细胞照片的半导体芯片。然而，我们不是用光来观察细胞，而是用电荷。这是一种独特的方法，解决了科学家在用光成像细胞时传统上面临的一些问题。尽管使用光的方法能够拍摄非常小的细胞（微米量级），但纯电子成像方法在它们能“看到”的细胞大小上受到限制。*******在我们的工作中，我们提高了用于拍摄细胞电子照片的“相机”的分辨率。为此，我们采用与几乎所有电脑和智能手机所用芯片相同的半导体技术来制造相机。这项技术包含非常小的电子元件，可以检测电池内部和周围电荷的微小变化。当电池直接放置在芯片表面时，我们可以更准确地检测到这些电荷的微小变化，并形成电池的图像。此外，我们不仅可以给细胞拍照，还可以观察它们的运动、生长，甚至与周围的其他细胞交流。*******在这个建议中，我们开发了一种新的半导体电路，可以成像细胞。我们试图使这些成像电路更小，更快，更准确，这样我们就可以观察到越来越小的细胞。除了制造新的电路外，我们还开发了活细胞与半导体表面相互作用的更好方法。*******我们的工作开启了制造基于电荷的细胞相机的可能性，这种相机可以用作识别疾病的工具。有些细胞，比如细菌，可以在物体表面形成非常薄的薄膜，如果人们接触到这种薄膜，就会生病。这在医院尤其是个问题，因为像导管这样的医疗器械被细菌膜污染了，可能会让病人病得很重。我们的长期目标之一是制造一种可以看到这些电影的摄像机，并通知医院工作人员预防疾病传播。*******为了实现我们的目标，我们将训练博士、硕士和本科生设计可以使用电化学传感方法对细胞成像的半导体芯片。我们还将与细胞培养方面的专家技术人员合作，这样我们就可以准确地测试我们制造的细胞相机原型。我们期望我们开发的技术有一天会被整合到加拿大和世界各地的公司生产的各种医疗器械中。在短期内，我们相信我们的技术可以被生命科学研究人员用于以非传统的方式研究细胞，为细胞行为提供新的见解

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.***