Using organic semiconductors in biosensors
Many areas of health care, including diagnosis and screening of new drug molecules, require the detection of biological and chemical species. Especially when it comes to diagnostics and therapies of neurological diseases, devices with a highly sensitive mechanism of transduction of the biological and chemical signals are required. Such devices are based on organic semiconductors and can be fabricated with micro- and nanofluidic structures. In line with this development, the EU-funded project ‘Sensing biosystems and their dynamics in fluids with organic transistors’ (Biodot) addressed and demonstrated a hybrid bio-organic technology for transduction of biomolecules and cell signals. Project partners developed technology that could detect biomolecules and cells using the same conditions. This required extensive experimentation to eventually fabricate a device that was compatible with the sterility requirements of cell cultures. Devices based on organic thin film transistors with microfluidics were developed – with or without a reference electrode – which responded to changes of the electrostatic charge at the interface between the biosystem in the solution and the organic semiconductor. Moreover, the project demonstrated the functionality of the developed sensor in aqueous media, as well as its potential interaction with complex biomolecules and neural cells. Biodot effectively demonstrated the concept of converging bio- and nanotechnology to construct organic semiconductor-based devices for biomolecule detection in vitro. Commercial application of the technology will improve diagnostics and in the long term pave the way for organic electronics.
