title: "Bioelectronic super-taster" device based on taste receptor-carbon nanotube hybrid structures.
abstract: We have developed a method to monitor the activities of human taste receptor protein in lipid membrane using carbon nanotube transistors, enabling a "bioelectronic super-taster (BST)", a taste sensor with human-tongue-like selectivity. In this work, human bitter taste receptor protein expressed in E. coli was immobilized on a single-walled carbon nanotube field effect transistor (swCNT-FET) with the lipid membrane. Then, the protein binding activity was monitored using the underlying swCNT-FET, leading to the operation as a BST device. The fabricated BST device could detect bitter tastants at 100 fM concentrations and distinguish between bitter and non-bitter tastants with similar chemical structures just like a human tongue. Furthermore, this strategy was utilized to differentiate the responses of taster or non-taster types of the bitter taste receptor proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Soonchunhyang University, Asan, 336-745, Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun Seok
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Hye Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Sang Hun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Namgung
authors.forename: Un-kyung
authors.initials: UK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Tai Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Seunghun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hong
mesh_terms: D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055615:Electrical Equipment and Supplies; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D055767:Immobilized Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013649:Taste; D014059:Tongue / Q000502:physiology; D014173:Transistors, Electronic
chemical_list: D055767:Immobilized Proteins; D037742:Nanotubes, Carbon; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled