4 research outputs found
Piezoelectric microsensors for semiochemical communication
Chemical communication plays vital role in the mediating the behaviour
of an organism living in the “odour space”. The mechanisms by which
odours are generated and detected by the organism has evolved over
thousands of years and thus the potential advantages of translating this
system into a fully functional communication system has opened new
avenues in the area of multi-disciplinary research. This formed the basis
of the Biosynthetic Infochemical Communications project – iCHEM
whose central aim was to develop a new class of communication
technology based on the biosynthesis pathways of the moth, S. littoralis.
This novel infochemical communication system would consist of a
“chemoemitter” unit which would generate a precise mix of infochemicals
which after travelling through the odour space would be detected by a
complementary tuned detector – the “chemoreceiver” unit comprising of
a ligand specific detection element and an associated biophysical model
functioning similar to the antennal lobe neuron of the moth. This
combined novel system will have the capability of communicating by the
help of chemicals only, in the vapour or liquid phase. For the work
presented in this thesis, the novel concept of infochemical
communication has been examined in the vapour and liquid phase by
employing piezoelectric microsensors. This has been achieved and
demonstrated throughout the thesis by employing chemo-specific
acoustic wave microsensors. For vapour phase assessment, quartz
crystal microbalance, were coated with different organic polymer
coatings and incorporated in a prototype infochemical communication
system detecting encoded volatiles. For liquid phase assessment, shear
horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) microsensors were
specifically designed and immobilised within Sf9 insect cells. This GPCR
based whole cell biosensing system was then employed to detect ligand
specific activations thus acting as a precursor to the development of a
fully functionalised OR based signalling system, thus contributing to the
growing field of communication and labelling technology
Detection of ligand-elicited cellular responses using surface acoustic wave biosensors
Here, we present the design and development of a novel Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) biosensor system and report preliminary results using a functionalised coating (Sf9 whole cells), to detect secondary cellular responses triggered when 12.5 ÎĽM of octopamine hydrochloride, an invertebrate neurotransmitter, binds to its endogenously expressed receptors present within the cell plasma membrane