一項研究說,，科學(xué)家把活細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)動一個機器人,。
Shoji Takeuchi及其同事對非洲爪蟾的稱為卵母細胞的卵細胞進行了遺傳改造,，從而復(fù)制了昆蟲嗅覺受體的功能,。這些受體進化出了一種識別特定化學(xué)物質(zhì)并與其結(jié)合的機制，在這個過程中會產(chǎn)生微弱的電流,。這組科學(xué)家把這些卵母細胞放進了一個經(jīng)過專門設(shè)計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胞并探測到這些細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的機器人,。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.
