A Multi-Modality CMOS Sensor Array for Cell-Based Assay and Drug Screening

IEEE Trans Biomed Circuits Syst. 2015 Dec;9(6):801-14. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2015.2504984. Epub 2016 Jan 22.

Abstract

In this paper, we present a fully integrated multi-modality CMOS cellular sensor array with four sensing modalities to characterize different cell physiological responses, including extracellular voltage recording, cellular impedance mapping, optical detection with shadow imaging and bioluminescence sensing, and thermal monitoring. The sensor array consists of nine parallel pixel groups and nine corresponding signal conditioning blocks. Each pixel group comprises one temperature sensor and 16 tri-modality sensor pixels, while each tri-modality sensor pixel can be independently configured for extracellular voltage recording, cellular impedance measurement (voltage excitation/current sensing), and optical detection. This sensor array supports multi-modality cellular sensing at the pixel level, which enables holistic cell characterization and joint-modality physiological monitoring on the same cellular sample with a pixel resolution of 80 μm × 100 μm. Comprehensive biological experiments with different living cell samples demonstrate the functionality and benefit of the proposed multi-modality sensing in cell-based assay and drug screening.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biosensing Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Biosensing Techniques / methods
  • Cell Culture Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Cell Culture Techniques / methods
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / instrumentation*
  • Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / methods
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Myocytes, Cardiac / cytology
  • Neurons / cytology
  • Semiconductors
  • Tissue Array Analysis / instrumentation*
  • Tissue Array Analysis / methods