According to MIT, miniature wireless 'antennas' have the potential to facilitate high-resolution biosensing.

2025-04-05 06:55:21 By Linda Brown

This is an MIT rendering of the micrometer-wide "antennas" for high-resolution biosensing.

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An illustration of the micrometer-scale "antennas" designed for enhanced biosensing capabilities [Image credit: Marta Airaghi and Benoit Desbiolles/MIT]

Researchers at MIT have recently unveiled a new method for achieving high-resolution biosensing without the need for wires.

In a paper published Dec. 20, 2024 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers described organic electro-scattering antennas (OCEANs) for wireless, light-based probing of cellular electrical signals. They said the “antennas” could provide micrometer spatial resolution, potentially from thousands of sites, during in vitro studies.

The following phase, however, involves evaluating their optical sensing arrays using real cell cultures cultivated on the surface.

“Being able to record the electrical activity of cells with high throughput and high resolution remains a real problem. We need to try some innovative ideas and alternate approaches,”  Benoît Desbiolles, a former postdoc in the MIT Media Lab and lead author of a paper on the devices, said in an MIT news release.

According to a news release from MIT, traditional devices that capture electrical signals in cell cultures and other liquid settings have been constrained by the use of wires, limiting the deployment of sensors. In contrast, researchers at MIT have developed antennas that are merely 1 micrometer wide—about one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair. These innovative antennas leverage the properties of the polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), which can either attract or repel positive ions from the liquid environment in response to nearby electrical activity. This interaction leads to alterations in the polymer's chemical configuration and electronic structure, which in turn modifies its refractive index and affects how it scatters light.

Illuminating the antenna alters the light intensity in relation to the electrical signal produced by the liquid. According to researchers from MIT, this allows scientists to utilize an optical microscope to collect the scattered light emitted by the numerous antennas in the array, enabling them to gauge electrical signals for enhanced biosensing resolution.

The arrays were created by researchers at the MIT.nano facilities. They began with a glass base and applied layers of conductive and insulating materials, ensuring that each layer remained optically transparent. Next, they employed a focused ion beam to etch hundreds of nanoscale holes into the upper layers.

Desbiolles explained, "This device functions similarly to a pen, allowing you to engrave any design with a resolution of 10 nanometers."

The scientists placed their chip into a solution rich in the precursor materials needed for the polymer. By applying an electric current to the solution, they were able to draw the precursor substances into the small pores of the chip, allowing the mushroom-shaped antennas to form and develop from the base upwards.

Desbiolles and his team believe that this method could potentially allow for the production of millions of antennas.

According to Desbiolles, "This method can be readily modified to ensure full scalability. The only constraint is the number of antennas we can capture images of simultaneously."

The research team developed high-resolution biosensing arrays that allow for cell cultures to be placed directly on their surface, enabling analysis under an optical microscope. They fine-tuned the size of the antennas and modified various parameters, resulting in a heightened sensitivity that can detect signals with voltages as low as 2.5 mV during simulated experiments. This voltage is merely a tiny portion of what is generated by neurons for their communication processes.

“Bioelectricity plays a crucial role in how cells operate and in various biological processes. Nevertheless, capturing these electrical signals with precision has proven to be difficult,” stated Deblina Sarkar, the lead author of the study, who is also an assistant professor at the Media Lab and MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, as well as the director of the Nano-Cybernetic Biotrek Lab.

“The organic electro-scattering antennas (OCEANs) we have created allow for the wireless capture of electrical signals with micrometer-level spatial precision from thousands of locations at once. This technology opens up remarkable possibilities for exploring essential biological processes and disrupted signaling in disease conditions, as well as for evaluating the impact of various therapeutics to facilitate innovative treatment options.”

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