title: Engineering a biospecific communication pathway between cells and electrodes.
abstract: Methods for transducing the cellular activities of mammalian cells into measurable electronic signals are important in many biotechnical applications, including biosensors, cell arrays, and other cell-based devices. This manuscript describes an approach for functionally integrating cellular activities and electrical processes in an underlying substrate. The cells are engineered with a cell-surface chimeric receptor that presents the nonmammalian enzyme cutinase. Action of this cell-surface cutinase on enzyme substrate self-assembled monolayers switches a nonelectroactive hydroxyphenyl ester to an electroactive hydroquinone, providing an electrical activity that can be identified with cyclic voltammetry. In this way, cell-surface enzymatic activity is transduced into electronic signals. The development of strategies to directly interface the activities of cells with materials will be important to enabling a broad class of hybrid microsystems that combine living and nonliving components.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Institute for Biophysical Dynamics, University of Chicago, 5735 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Joel H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Collier
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mrksich
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D016466:CHO Cells; D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006224:Cricetinae; D003412:Cricetulus; D004560:Electricity; D004566:Electrodes; D005670:Fusarium / Q000201:enzymology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015202:Protein Engineering; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D002265:Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases; C019952:cutinase