Three-dimensional transistor arrays for intra- and inter-cellular recording

Yue Gu; Chunfeng Wang; Namheon Kim; Jingxin Zhang; Tsui Min Wang; Jennifer Stowe; Rohollah Nasiri; Jinfeng Li; Daibo Zhang; Albert Yang; Leo Huan-Hsuan Hsu; Xiaochuan Dai; Jing Mu; Zheyuan Liu; Muyang Lin; Weixin Li; Chonghe Wang; Hua Gong; Yimu Chen; Yusheng Lei; Hongjie Hu; Yang Li; Lin Zhang; Zhenlong Huang; Xingcai Zhang; Samad Ahadian; Pooja Banik; Liangfang Zhang; Xiaocheng Jiang; Peter J Burke; Ali Khademhosseini; Andrew D McCulloch; Sheng Xu

doi:10.1038/s41565-021-01040-w

Three-dimensional transistor arrays for intra- and inter-cellular recording

Nat Nanotechnol. 2022 Mar;17(3):292-300. doi: 10.1038/s41565-021-01040-w. Epub 2021 Dec 23.

Authors

Yue Gu^{1

2}, Chunfeng Wang², Namheon Kim², Jingxin Zhang¹, Tsui Min Wang³, Jennifer Stowe³, Rohollah Nasiri⁴, Jinfeng Li⁵, Daibo Zhang³, Albert Yang³, Leo Huan-Hsuan Hsu⁶, Xiaochuan Dai⁶, Jing Mu², Zheyuan Liu⁷, Muyang Lin², Weixin Li², Chonghe Wang², Hua Gong², Yimu Chen², Yusheng Lei², Hongjie Hu^{1

2}, Yang Li², Lin Zhang², Zhenlong Huang², Xingcai Zhang⁸, Samad Ahadian⁴, Pooja Banik², Liangfang Zhang², Xiaocheng Jiang⁶, Peter J Burke⁹, Ali Khademhosseini⁴, Andrew D McCulloch³, Sheng Xu^{10

11

12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
² Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
³ Departments of Bioengineering and Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
⁴ Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
⁷ Electrochemical Energy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. shengxu@ucsd.edu.
¹¹ Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. shengxu@ucsd.edu.
¹² Departments of Bioengineering and Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. shengxu@ucsd.edu.
¹³ Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. shengxu@ucsd.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. shengxu@ucsd.edu.

Abstract

Electrical impulse generation and its conduction within cells or cellular networks are the cornerstone of electrophysiology. However, the advancement of the field is limited by sensing accuracy and the scalability of current recording technologies. Here we describe a scalable platform that enables accurate recording of transmembrane potentials in electrogenic cells. The platform employs a three-dimensional high-performance field-effect transistor array for minimally invasive cellular interfacing that produces faithful recordings, as validated by the gold standard patch clamp. Leveraging the high spatial and temporal resolutions of the field-effect transistors, we measured the intracellular signal conduction velocity of a cardiomyocyte to be 0.182 m s^-1, which is about five times the intercellular velocity. We also demonstrate intracellular recordings in cardiac muscle tissue constructs and reveal the signal conduction paths. This platform could provide new capabilities in probing the electrical behaviours of single cells and cellular networks, which carries broad implications for understanding cellular physiology, pathology and cell-cell interactions.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Action Potentials
Cell Communication
Electrophysiological Phenomena*
Myocytes, Cardiac*

Grants and funding

R35 GM138250/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/United States