Achievement

IGERT trainee Joshua Phelps of the Kan group at Cornell has built electrochemical sensors on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate with high spatial and temporal resolution. The aim of this research is to monitor cellular signal pathways using the smart-skin flexible CMOS process, by which these SOI sensors are attached to a flexible substrate and the silicon substrate under the buried oxide is etched away to make the sensor device flexible. Such a flexible sensor not only improves microfluidic integration but also allows the use of inverted microscopy for optical monitoring. This design offers the unique capability of simultaneous fluorescence-based and electrochemical monitoring of cellular processes. IGERT faculty member Barbara Baird's group has collaborated with the Kan group to use these CMOS sensors to monitor chromaffin cell action potential transients.