ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a silicon-based nanomaterial that can sense and even register electrical signals from both individual cells and groups of cells. A primary goal of cellular biology has been to understand how cells process and use electrical, chemical, and biological signals both within cells and between cells. Cells that can generate electrical signals, specifically action potentials, are termed excitable cells and include muscle fibers that initiate contraction, and nerve cells. Field-effect transistors (FET) are sensitive to small voltage differences across the gate and source, and so can significantly amplify signals in the current readout. With the same device principal, sensing of electrical/chemical/biological signal can be done on a much smaller scale. While the roles of biochemical, and electrical, cues in biological cells have been studied in many aspects in depth, that of mechanical cues has only begun to be understood. The biggest challenges for nanoscale FET-based devices are in increasing the signal-to-noise ratio and overcoming the Debye screening phenomena.
