Graphene Biosensor (IMAGE)

University of Pennsylvania

Graphene Biosensor

Caption

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have led an effort to create an artificial chemical sensor based on one of the human body's most important receptors, one that is critical in the action of painkillers and anesthetics. In these devices, the receptors' activation produces an electrical response rather than a biochemical one, allowing that response to be read out by a computer. In this illustration of the researchers' devices, ribbons of graphene (silver) are mounted on circuitry (gold), which can read out a response when the attached receptor proteins (purple) bind to a target molecule.

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University of Pennsylvania

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