Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2019 Aug;14(8):783-790. doi: 10.1038/s41565-019-0478-y. Epub 2019 Jul 1.
New tools for intracellular electrophysiology that push the limits of spatiotemporal resolution while reducing invasiveness could provide a deeper understanding of electrogenic cells and their networks in tissues, and push progress towards human-machine interfaces. Although significant advances have been made in developing nanodevices for intracellular probes, current approaches exhibit a trade-off between device scalability and recording amplitude. We address this challenge by combining deterministic shape-controlled nanowire transfer with spatially defined semiconductor-to-metal transformation to realize scalable nanowire field-effect transistor probe arrays with controllable tip geometry and sensor size, which enable recording of up to 100 mV intracellular action potentials from primary neurons. Systematic studies on neurons and cardiomyocytes show that controlling device curvature and sensor size is critical for achieving high-amplitude intracellular recordings. In addition, this device design allows for multiplexed recording from single cells and cell networks and could enable future investigations of dynamics in the brain and other tissues.
用于细胞内电生理学的新工具在提高时空分辨率的同时降低了侵入性，这可能会加深我们对发电细胞及其组织网络的理解，并推动人机接口的发展。尽管在开发用于细胞内探针的纳米器件方面已经取得了重大进展，但目前的方法在器件的可扩展性和记录幅度之间存在折衷。我们通过结合确定性形状控制纳米线转移和空间定义的半导体到金属转变来解决这一挑战，从而实现具有可控尖端几何形状和传感器尺寸的可扩展纳米线场效应晶体管探针阵列，该阵列可记录来自原代神经元的高达 100 mV 的细胞内动作电位。对神经元和心肌细胞的系统研究表明，控制器件曲率和传感器尺寸对于实现高幅度的细胞内记录至关重要。此外，这种器件设计允许对单个细胞和细胞网络进行多路复用记录，并可能为大脑和其他组织中的动力学研究提供新的思路。
