Interfacing excitable cells with integrated devices

A project which aims at coupling excitable living cells directly to ion-sensitive field effect transistors (ISFETS) in order to obtain active microsensors of the electrochemical cell activity is described. Digital fluorescence microscopy and digital high-resolution scanning acoustic microscopy were utilized to characterize the coupling between healthy cells and integrated devices. The program SPICE was utilized to simulate the response of an ISFET to cell activity. Preliminary experimental results, obtained by coupling excitable cells to nonoptimized ISFET devices, seem to confirm the simulation predictions