45 research outputs found
An Electronic Approach for Stochastic Sensing
In recent years, we have assisted to an ever-increasing capability of electronic systems to detect extremely small signals in noisy environments. Following this trend, the capability to electronically detect single molecular binding events could bring to a new, high performance class of biosensors. One of the best transducers coding single molecule event into an electric signal is already existing in nature and widely used by cells for interacting with the external environment: the ligand-gated ion channel. The biological cell is filled with all types of ion channels that control the trafficking of ions and molecules in and out of the cell and among the subcellular structures. However, the signaling derived by ion channels upon molecular binding is intrinsically stochastic, due to the thermal agitation of the physical system at molecular scale. Properties of their gating are strongly influenced by binding between receptive sites located on the channel surface and specific target molecules. In this paper we propose to use signals deriving from ligand-gated ion channels for realizing quantitative sensors, able to detect specific chemical species in fluid mixtures. Following this goal, we have implemented an electronic system, able to record ionic currents derived by single gated ion channels having hundreds of femto-amperes of resolution. Additionally, we propose a statistical approach for processing the electrical information, in order to estimate the concentration value of the target molecules. The proposed algorithm was tested using a Monte Carlo simulator and a simple channel model taken from literature
A Compact System for Single Ion Channel Recording
The integrated use of ion channels and
electronics is a promising approach to develop rapid,
sensitive and reliable biosensors able to detect low
concentration of target molecules, with applications that
range from pharmacology to diagnostic tools. Several
reports on stochastic sensors have been published [2-4],
however all are based on bulky and expensive
instruments. This paper presents a compact (two credit
cards size) and low-cost integrated system able to record
and process signals in the typical single-channel
recording bandwidths. To test the approach, we used
signals derived from non-covalent bonds between single
α-hemolysin pores, embedded into an artificial lipid
bilayer, and β-cyclodextrin molecules. The system is
based on a ∆Σ converter implemented on a PCB using
discrete components technology to readout ion currents
in the order of pA. The digitized output is sent to a DSP
for decimation and filtering and then to a PC for
storage, visualization and stochastic data processing