Bioelectronic silicon nanowire devices using functional membrane proteins.
Modern means of communication rely on electric fields and currents to carry the flow of information. In contrast, biological systems follow a different paradigm that uses ion gradients and currents, flows of small molecules, and membrane electric potentials. Living organisms use a sophisticated arsenal of membrane receptors, channels, and pumps to control signal transduction to a degree that is unmatched by manmade devices. Electronic circuits that use such biological components could achieve drastically increased functionality; however, this approach requires nearly seamless integration of biological and manmade structures. We present a versatile hybrid platform for such integration that uses shielded nanowires (NWs) that are coated with a continuous lipid bilayer. We show that when shielded silicon NW transistors incorporate transmembrane peptide pores gramicidin A and alamethicin in the lipid bilayer they can achieve ionic to electronic signal transduction by using voltage-gated or chemically gated ion transport through the membrane pores.
Misra
Nipun
N
Physical and Life Sciences Directorate, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
Martinez
Julio A
JA
Huang
Shih-Chieh J
SC
Wang
Yinmin
Y
Stroeve
Pieter
P
Grigoropoulos
Costas P
CP
Noy
Aleksandr
A
D000408:Alamethicin / Q000737:chemistry; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods; D006096:Gramicidin / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007473:Ion Channels / Q000737:chemistry; D008024:Ligands; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D053770:Nanowires; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D007473:Ion Channels; D008024:Ligands; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D006096:Gramicidin; D000408:Alamethicin; D012825:Silicon