A biomimetic materials approach towards the development of a neural cell-based biosensor

Neural cells possess sensitive electrochemical transduction capabilities that could be useful in constructing cell-based biosensors. Previous studies on the neuron-electronics interface emphasize the importance of a tight coupling in optimization signal recording. In the present study, the intention was to improve the neuron-electronic interface coupling by mimicking the cell-substratum interactions found in vivo. Synthetic oligopeptides that are similar to the attachment-promoting laminin subdomains in the extracellular matrix were utilized to enhance cell-electrode coupling. They were immobilized on gold substrates, and their presence was verified with surface analysis spectroscopy (ESCA and ToF-SIMS). A significant increase in neural cell attachment efficacy was observed on peptide-modified substrates as compared to the unmodified ones. Here, the authors report results obtained with a biochip prototype that was constructed with attachment-promoting peptides on the microelectrodes. Strong signals were obtained. The results of this study would be useful in the development of biological neural networks and bioelectronic devices.