Cell-Based Sensing

Background

We are conducting research to develop an understanding of the opportunities and constraints of cell-based sensor systems. This work is done in collaboration with Pamela Abshire (ECE), Ricardo Araneda (Department of Biology), Abhinav Shrivastava (Computer Science), and David Tomblin (Science, Technology, and Society) at UMCP, Anita Spetz (at (Linkoping University, Sweden), with University of Oulu, Finland, and with NARO in Tsukuba Japan.  We have two long-term goals for this research.

1. Use cells as sensors to transduce stimuli into externally-readable outputs (most recently for olfaction).
   – exploit biological specificity and sensitivity
2. Develop technology to study cellular events and processes at the level of single cells or small groups of cells.
   – allow new scientific studies