Biomedical subjects

B D DeBusschere

Publications and source records attributed to B D DeBusschere.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Portable cell-based biosensor system using integrated CMOS cell-cartridges.

The use of cell-based biosensors outside of the laboratory has been limited due to many issues including preparation of the sample, maintenance of the biological environment, and integration of the electronics for data collection and analysis. This paper describes a system that addresses several of these issues with the development of an integrated silicon-polydimethylsiloxane cell-cartridge. The cell-cartridge contains a CMOS silicon chip that incorporates a digital interface, temperature control system, microelectrode electrophysiology sensors, and analog signal buffering. Additionally, the cell-cartridge supports two separate cell populations in two 10 microl sealed chambers that have independent fluidic channels for sample injection. A portable, microcontroller-based electronics system capable of monitoring the action potential (AP) activity within the cell-cartridges was also developed. The AP activities of cardiomyocyte syncytia in the two chambers differentially responded to the flow of a control medium versus the flow of a biochemical agent. The cell-cartridges and portable electronics system were used to successfully record AP activity from cardiomyocytes outside of the laboratory under realistic application conditions.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2001

General purpose, field-portable cell-based biosensor platform.

There are several groups of researchers developing cell-based biosensors for chemical and biological warfare agents based on electrophysiologic monitoring of cells. In order to transition such sensors from the laboratory to the field, a general-purpose hardware and software platform is required. This paper describes the design, implementation, and field-testing of such a system, consisting of cell-transport and data acquisition instruments. The cell-transport module is a self-contained, battery-powered instrument that allows various types of cell-based modules to be maintained at a preset temperature and ambient CO(2) level while in transit or in the field. The data acquisition module provides 32 channels of action potential amplification, filtering, and real-time data streaming to a laptop computer. At present, detailed analysis of the data acquired is carried out off-line, but sufficient computing power is available in the data acquisition module to enable the most useful algorithms to eventually be run real-time in the field. Both modules have sufficient internal power to permit realistic field-testing, such as the example presented in this paper.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2001

A genetically engineered cell-based biosensor for functional classification of agents.

Cell-based biosensors (CBBs) utilize whole cells to detect biologically active agents. Although CBBs have shown success in detecting the presence of biological agents, efforts to classify the type of agent based on functional activity have proven difficult because multiple biochemical pathways can lead to the same cellular response. However, a new approach using a genetically-engineered cell-based biosensor (GECBB) described in this paper translates this cross-talk noise into common-mode noise that can be rejected. The GECBB operates by assaying for an agent's ability to differentially activate two populations of cells, wild-type (WT) cells and cells genetically engineered to lack a specific receptor, knockout (KO) cells. Any biological agent that targets the knocked out receptor will evoke a response in the WT but not in the KO. Thus, the GECBB is exquisitely sensitive to agents that effect the engineered pathway. This approach provides the benefits of an assay for specific functional activity while simplifying signal analysis. The GECBB implemented was designed to be sensitive to agents that activate the beta 1-adrenergic receptor (beta 1-AR). This was achieved by using mouse cardiomyocytes in which the beta 1-AR had been knocked out. The cellular signal used in the GECBB was the spontaneous beat rate of the two cardiomyocyte syncitia as measured with microelectrode arrays. The GECBB was able to detect the beta-AR agonist isoproterenol (ISO) at a concentration of 10 microM (P<0.005).

Adrenergic beta-Agonists↗