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Anchored, biotinylated phospholipids forming the capturing layers in an electrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistor (EGOFET) allow label-free electronic specific detection at a concentration level of 10 nM in a high ionic strength solution. The sensing mechanism is based on a clear capacitive effect across the PL layers involving the charges of the target molecules., (Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

The detailed action mechanism of volatile general anesthetics is still unknown despite their effect has been clinically exploited for more than a century. Long ago it was also assessed that the potency of an anesthetic molecule well correlates with its lipophilicity and phospholipids were eventually identified as mediators. As yet, the direct effect of volatile anesthetics at physiological relevant concentrations on membranes is still under scrutiny. Organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) integrating a phospholipid (PL) functional bio inter-layer (FBI) are here proposed for the electronic detection of archetypal volatile anesthetic molecules such as diethyl ether and halothane. This technology allows to directly interface a PL layer to an electronic transistor channel, and directly probe subtle changes occurring in the bio-layer. Repeatable responses of PL FBI-OFET to anesthetics are produced in a concentration range that reaches few percent, namely the clinically relevant regime. The PL FBI-OFET is also shown to deliver a comparably weaker response to a non-anesthetic volatile molecule such as acetone., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Biosystems integration into an organic field-effect transistor (OFET) structure is achieved by spin coating phospholipid or protein layers between the gate dielectric and the organic semiconductor. An architecture directly interfacing supported biological layers to the OFET channel is proposed and, strikingly, both the electronic properties and the biointerlayer functionality are fully retained. The platform bench tests involved OFETs integrating phospholipids and bacteriorhodopsin exposed to 1-5% anesthetic doses that reveal drug-induced changes in the lipid membrane. This result challenges the current anesthetic action model relying on the so far provided evidence that doses much higher than clinically relevant ones (2.4%) do not alter lipid bilayers' structure significantly. Furthermore, a streptavidin embedding OFET shows label-free biotin electronic detection at 10 parts-per-trillion concentration level, reaching state-of-the-art fluorescent assay performances. These examples show how the proposed bioelectronic platform, besides resulting in extremely performing biosensors, can open insights into biologically relevant phenomena involving membrane weak interfacial modifications.

Most of the success of electronic devices fabricated to actively interact with a biological environment relies on the proper choice of materials and efficient engineering of surfaces and interfaces. Organic materials have proved to be among the best candidates for this aim owing to many properties, such as the synthesis tunability, processing, softness and self-assembling ability, which allow them to form surfaces that are compatible with biological tissues. This review reports some research results obtained in the development of devices which exploit organic materials' properties in order to detect biologically significant molecules as well as to trigger/capture signals from the biological environment. Among the many investigated sensing devices, organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) and microcantilevers (MCLs) have been chosen. The main factors motivating this choice are their label-free detection approach, which is particularly important when addressing complex biological processes, as well as the possibility to integrate them in an electronic circuit. Particular attention is paid to the design and realization of biocompatible surfaces which can be employed in the recognition of pertinent molecules as well as to the research of new materials, both natural and inspired by nature, as a first approach to environmentally friendly electronics.