一項(xiàng)研究說(shuō),，科學(xué)家把活細(xì)胞組裝到了一個(gè)探測(cè)氣味的電子傳感器中,，而且有可能用于驅(qū)動(dòng)一個(gè)機(jī)器人。
Shoji Takeuchi及其同事對(duì)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(jué)受體的功能。這些受體進(jìn)化出了一種識(shí)別特定化學(xué)物質(zhì)并與其結(jié)合的機(jī)制,，在這個(gè)過(guò)程中會(huì)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(gè)經(jīng)過(guò)專門設(shè)計(jì)的充滿液體的盒子里,，它能夠用兩個(gè)電極捕捉住單個(gè)卵母細(xì)胞并探測(cè)到這些細(xì)胞的膜上流動(dòng)的電流,。
這組作者說(shuō)，在測(cè)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(cè)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(dòng)了一個(gè)裝備電動(dòng)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(cè)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(cè)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.
