一項(xiàng)研究說,，科學(xué)家把活細(xì)胞組裝到了一個探測氣味的電子傳感器中，而且有可能用于驅(qū)動一個機(jī)器人。
Shoji Takeuchi及其同事對非洲爪蟾的稱為卵母細(xì)胞的卵細(xì)胞進(jìn)行了遺傳改造，從而復(fù)制了昆蟲嗅覺受體的功能。這些受體進(jìn)化出了一種識別特定化學(xué)物質(zhì)并與其結(jié)合的機(jī)制,，在這個過程中會產(chǎn)生微弱的電流。這組科學(xué)家把這些卵母細(xì)胞放進(jìn)了一個經(jīng)過專門設(shè)計(jì)的充滿液體的盒子里,，它能夠用兩個電極捕捉住單個卵母細(xì)胞并探測到這些細(xì)胞的膜上流動的電流,。
這組作者說，在測試中,，這種“生物混合型”傳感器可以區(qū)分幾乎相同的化學(xué)物質(zhì),，諸如有同樣的化學(xué)式但是分子結(jié)構(gòu)稍有不同的化合物。為了測試這種裝置在一種便攜式系統(tǒng)中的潛力,，這組科學(xué)家放大了這種傳感器的輸出并用它驅(qū)動了一個裝備電動機(jī)的機(jī)器人,。這組作者提出，這種傳感器可能改善目前的氣味探測系統(tǒng)的便攜性,，而且可以加入到一大批應(yīng)用中,，諸如環(huán)境監(jiān)測和食品管理。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1004334107
highly sensitive and selective odorant sensor using living cells expressing insect olfactory receptors
Nobuo Misawaa,b,1, Hidefumi Mitsunob,c,1, Ryohei Kanzakic, and Shoji Takeuchia,b,2
This paper describes a highly sensitive and selective chemical sensor using living cells (Xenopus laevis oocytes) within a portable fluidic device. We constructed an odorant sensor whose sensitivity is a few parts per billion in solution and can simultaneously distinguish different types of chemicals that have only a slight difference in double bond isomerism or functional group such as ─OH, ─CHO and ─C(═O)─. We developed a semiautomatic method to install cells to the fluidic device and achieved stable and reproducible odorant sensing. In addition, we found that the sensor worked for multiple-target chemicals and can be integrated with a robotic system without any noise reduction systems. Our developed sensor is compact and easy to replace in the system. We believe that the sensor can potentially be incorporated into a portable system for monitoring environmental and physical conditions.
