ABSTRACT

Whole-cell biosensors incorporate living cells as integral compo-

nents of a sensing device. The biological elements may be natural

prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells or genetically engineered variants

thereof, isolated proteins, including antibodies, or other isolated

cellular components. These biological elements are then integrated

in some fashion to an electronic device, which then (measures or)

transduces the biological signal into a form that can be directly

analyzed, stored, or transmitted (for further analysis). A variety of

transducing methods have been developed, including colorimetric,

fluorescent, electrochemical, and bioluminescent approaches [1,

2]. The use of bioluminescent reporters has been widely adopted

for chemical sensing because of their sensitivity, specificity, range,

relative simplicity, and suitability for real-time analysis [3]. Here

prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells are engineered to emit light in

response to an environmental stimulus. The genetic engineering

usually involves inserting the promoter of a gene that is naturally

upregulated in response to a specific stimulus, in front of luciferase

structural genes. Thus under the conditions that upregulate a

specific gene, gene expression of the luciferase genes is induced

and light is emitted. As it is conventionally practiced the emitted

light is generally detected by a benchtop photodetector instrument

that typically uses a photomultiplier tube (PMT). With the initial

goal of creating a mobile device, we have miniaturized the light de-

tection apparatus using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor

(CMOS) technology tomake a bioluminescent bioreporter integrated

circuit (BBIC).