The Use of Insect Chemoreceptors for the Assembly of Biosensors Based on Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors

Implementation of biohybrid olfactory bulb on a high-density CMOS-chip to reveal large-scale spatiotemporal circuit information

Large-scale multi-site biosensors are essential to probe the olfactory bulb (OB) circuitry for understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of simultaneous discharge patterns. Current ex-vivo biosensing techniques are limited to recording a small set of neurons and cannot provide an adequate resolution, which hinders revealing the fast dynamic underlying the information coding mechanisms in the OB circuit. Here, we demonstrate a novel biohybrid OB-CMOS biosensing platform to decipher the cross-scale dynamics of the OB electrogenesis and quantify the distinct neuronal coding properties. The approach with 4096-microelectrodes offers a non-invasive, label-free, bioelectrical imaging to decode simultaneous firing patterns from thousands of connected neuronal ensembles in acute OB slices. The platform can measure spontaneous and drug-induced extracellular field potential activity with substantially improved spatiotemporal resolution over conventional OB-based biosensors. Also, we employ our OB-CMOS recordings to perform multidimensional analysis to instantiate specific neurophysiological metrics underlying the olfactory spatiotemporal coding that emerged from the OB interconnected layers. Our results delineate the computational implications of large-scale activity patterns in functional olfactory processing. The systematic interplay of the experimental CMOS-base platform architecture and the high-content characterization of the olfactory circuit with various computational analyses endow significant functional interrogations of the OB information processing, high-spatiotemporal connectivity mapping, and global circuit dynamics. Thus, our study can inspire the design of advanced biomimetic olfactory-based biosensors and neuromorphic approaches for diagnostic biomarkers and drug discovery applications.

Field-Effect Sensors Using Biomaterials for Chemical Sensing

After millions of years of evolution, biological chemical sensing systems (i.e., olfactory and taste systems) have become very powerful natural systems which show extreme high performances in detecting and discriminating various chemical substances. Creating field-effect sensors using biomaterials that are able to detect specific target chemical substances with high sensitivity would have broad applications in many areas, ranging from biomedicine and environments to the food industry, but this has proved extremely challenging. Over decades of intense research, field-effect sensors using biomaterials for chemical sensing have achieved significant progress and have shown promising prospects and potential applications. This review will summarize the most recent advances in the development of field-effect sensors using biomaterials for chemical sensing with an emphasis on those using functional biomaterials as sensing elements such as olfactory and taste cells and receptors. Firstly, unique principles and approaches for the development of these field-effect sensors using biomaterials will be introduced. Then, the major types of field-effect sensors using biomaterials will be presented, which includes field-effect transistor (FET), light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS), and capacitive electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor (EIS) sensors. Finally, the current limitations, main challenges and future trends of field-effect sensors using biomaterials for chemical sensing will be proposed and discussed.

More than apples and oranges--detecting cancer with a fruit fly's antenna

Cancer cells and non-cancer cells differ in their metabolism and they emit distinct volatile compound profiles, allowing to recognise cancer cells by their scent. Insect odorant receptors are excellent chemosensors with high sensitivity and a broad receptive range unmatched by current gas sensors. We thus investigated the potential of utilising the fruit fly's olfactory system to detect cancer cells. Using in vivo calcium imaging, we recorded an array of olfactory receptor neurons on the fruit fly's antenna. We performed multidimensional analysis of antenna responses, finding that cell volatiles from different cell types lead to characteristic response vectors. The distances between these response vectors are conserved across flies and can be used to discriminate healthy mammary epithelial cells from different types of breast cancer cells. This may expand the repertoire of clinical diagnostics, and it is the first step towards electronic noses equipped with biological sensors, integrating artificial and biological olfaction.

Current and emerging challenges of field effect transistor based bio-sensing

Field-effect-transistor (FET) based electrical signal transduction is an increasingly prevalent strategy for bio-sensing. This technique, often termed "Bio-FETs", provides an essentially label-free and real-time based bio-sensing platform effective for a variety of targets. This review highlights recent progress and challenges in the field. A special focus is on the comprehension of emerging nanotechnology-based approaches to facilitate signal-transduction and amplification. Some new targets of Bio-FETs and the future perspectives are also discussed.

Recent advances in olfactory receptor-based biosensors

The biological olfactory system can recognize and discriminate thousands of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with extremely high sensitivity and specificity. The most fundamental elements are olfactory receptors (ORs) in the cilia of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), which contribute greatly to the high-performance olfactory system. The excellent properties of ORs are generally recognized in the development of biomimetic OR-based biosensors. Over the past two decades, much work has been done in developing OR-based biosensors due to their promising potential in many applications. In this article, we will outline the latest advances of OR-based biosensors. Two current crucial issues in this field will be discussed, namely, the production methods and immobilization techniques of ORs. We will also elaborate on various OR-based biosensors and their latest developments. Finally, current research trends and future challenges in this field will be discussed.

Mimicking nature's noses: from receptor deorphaning to olfactory biosensing

The way in which organisms detect specific volatile compounds within their environment, and the associated neural processing which produces perception and subsequent behavioural responses, have been of interest to scientists for decades. Initially, most olfaction research was conducted using electrophysiological techniques on whole animals. However, the discovery of genes encoding the family of human olfactory receptors (ORs) paved the way for the development of a range of cellular assays, primarily used to deorphan ORs from mammals and insects. These assays have greatly advanced our knowledge of the molecular basis of olfaction, however, while there is currently good agreement on vertebrate and nematode olfactory signalling cascades, debate still surrounds the signalling mechanisms in insects. The inherent specificity and sensitivity of ORs makes them prime candidates as biological detectors of volatile ligands within biosensor devices, which have many potential applications. In the previous decade, researchers have investigated various technologies for transducing OR:ligand interactions into a readable format and thereby produce an olfactory biosensor (or bioelectronic nose) that maintains the discriminating power of the ORs in vivo. Here we review and compare the molecular mechanisms of olfaction in vertebrates and invertebrates, and also summarise the assay technologies utilising sub-tissue level sensing elements (cells and cell extracts), which have been applied to OR deorphanization and biosensor research. Although there are currently no commercial, "field-ready" olfactory biosensors of the kind discussed here, there have been several technological proof-of-concept studies suggesting that we will see their emergence within the next decade.

Response enhancement of olfactory sensory neurons-based biosensors for odorant detection

This paper presents a novel strategy for the response enhancement of olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs)-based biosensors by monitoring the enhancive responses of OSNs to odorants. An OSNs-based biosensor was developed on the basis of the light addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS), in which rat OSNs were cultured on the surface of LAPS chip and served as sensing elements. LY294002, the specific inhibitor of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), was used to enhance the responses of OSNs to odorants. The responses of OSNs to odorants with and without the treatment of LY294002 were recorded by LAPS. The results show that the enhancive effect of LY294002 was recorded efficiently by LAPS and the responses of this OSNs-LAPS hybrid biosensor were enhanced by LY294002 by about 1.5-fold. We conclude that this method can enhance the responses of OSNs-LAPS hybrid biosensors, which may provide a novel strategy for the bioelectrical signal monitor of OSNs in biosensors. It is also suggested that this strategy may be applicable to other kinds of OSNs-based biosensors for cellular activity detection, such as microelectrode array (MEA) and field effect transistor (FET).

Feasibility studies on si-based biosensors

The aim of this paper is to summarize the efforts carried out so far in the fabrication of Si-based biosensors by a team of researchers in Catania, Italy. This work was born as a collaboration between the Catania section of the Microelectronic and Microsystem Institute (IMM) of the CNR, the Surfaces and Interfaces laboratory (SUPERLAB) of the Consorzio Catania Ricerche and two departments at the University of Catania: the Biomedical Science and the Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology Departments. The first goal of our study was the definition and optimization of an immobilization protocol capable of bonding the biological sensing element on a Si-based surface via covalent chemical bonds. We chose SiO(2) as the anchoring surface due to its biocompatibility and extensive presence in microelectronic devices. The immobilization protocol was tested and optimized, introducing a new step, oxide activation, using techniques compatible with microelectronic processing. The importance of the added step is described by the experimental results. We also tested different biological molecule concentrations in the immobilization solutions and the effects on the immobilized layer. Finally a MOS-like structure was designed and fabricated to test an electrical transduction mechanism. The results obtained so far and the possible evolution of the research field are described in this review paper.