News — New York, NY鈥擬ay 20, 2013鈥擳he miniaturization of electronics continues to create unprecedented capabilities in computer and communications applications, enabling handheld wireless devices with tremendous computing performance operating on battery power. This same miniaturization of electronic systems is also creating new opportunities in biotechnology and biophysics.
A team of researchers at Columbia Engineering has used miniaturized electronics to measure the activity of individual ion-channel proteins with temporal resolution as fine as one microsecond, producing the fastest recordings of single ion channels ever performed. Ion channels are biomolecules that allow charged atoms to flow in and out of cells, and they are an important work-horse in cell signaling, sensing, and energetics. They are also being explored for nanopore sequencing applications. As the 鈥渢ransistors鈥� of living systems, they are the target of many drugs, and the ability to perform such fast measurements of these proteins will lead to new understanding of their functions. The researchers have designed a custom integrated circuit to perform these measurements, in which an artificial cell membrane and ion channel are attached directly to the surface of the amplifier chip. The results are described in a paper published online May 1, 2013, in Nano Letters.
鈥淪cientists have been measuring single ion channels using large rack-mount electronic systems for the last 30 years,鈥� says Jacob Rosenstein, the lead author on the paper. Rosenstein was a PhD student in electrical engineering at the School at the time this work was done, and is now an assistant professor at Brown University. 鈥淏y designing a custom microelectronic amplifier and tightly integrating the ion channel directly onto the amplifier chip surface, we are able to reduce stray capacitances that get in the way of making fast measurements.鈥�
鈥淭his work builds on other efforts in my laboratory to study the properties of individual molecules using custom electronics designed for this purpose,鈥� says Ken Shepard, professor of electrical engineering at the School and Rosenstein鈥檚 adviser. The Shepard group continues to find ways to speed up these single-molecule measurements. 鈥淚n some cases,鈥� he adds, 鈥渨e may be able to speed things up to be a million times faster than current techniques.鈥�
This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
Columbia EngineeringColumbia University's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, founded in 1864, offers programs in nine departments to both undergraduate and graduate students. With facilities specifically designed and equipped to meet the laboratory and research needs of faculty and students, Columbia Engineering is home to NSF-NIH funded centers in genomic science, molecular nanostructures, materials science, and energy, as well as one of the world鈥檚 leading programs in financial engineering. These interdisciplinary centers are leading the way in their respective fields while individual groups of engineers and scientists collaborate to solve some of modern society鈥檚 more difficult challenges.
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