Citation:
Abstract:
This work investigates the feasibility of transducing molecular-recognition events into a measurable potentiometric signal. It is shown for the first time that biorecognition of acetylcholine (ACh) can be translated to conformational changes in the enzyme, acetylcholine-esterase (AChE), which in turn induces a measurable change in surface potential. Our results show that a highly sensitive detector for ACh can be obtained by the dilute assembly of AChE on a floating gate derived field effect transistor (FG-FET). A wide concentration range response is observed for ACh (10-2-10-9M) and for the inhibitor carbamylcholine CCh (10-6-10-11M). These enhanced sensitivities are modeled theoretically and explained by the combined response of the device to local pH changes and molecular dipole variations due to the enzyme-substrate recognition event.