Previous Projects
Analytical Micro-Systems for Personalized Health Monitoring
- Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip for DNA hybridization analysis
- Electrochemical lab-on-a-chip for neuropsychiatric health management
- Tobacco Mosaic Virus biotemplated nano-electrodes
Bio-Microelectromechanical Systems (Bio-MEMS)
Nanoelectronic Systems and Biomaterials
Electrochemical whole-cell lab-on-a-chip for water toxicity field monitoring - The DipChip project
This work presents a microfluidic whole cell biosensor for water toxicity analysis. The biosensor is based on bacterial cells that are genetically “tailored” to generate a sequence of biochemical reactions that eventually generate an electrical signal in the presence of genotoxicants. The bacterial assay was affected by toxicant contaminated water for an induction time that ranged between 30 min and 120 min. Enzymatic substrate (pAPP) was added to the assay generating the electrochemical active material (pAP) only when toxicants are sensed by the bacteria. The bacteria were integrated onto a micro-chip that was manufactured by micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and comprises various micro-chambers with ranging nano-volumes and with micro-scale size electrodes. We describe the biochip operation, its electrochemical response to calibration solutions as well as to the whole cell assays. We demonstrate the potential use of the whole cell biochip for toxicity detection of two different genotoxicants, nalidixic acid (NA) and 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ).
Selected Accomplishments:
TBN
Students and Postdocs:
TBN
Collaborators:
- Professor Shimshon Belkin (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
- Professor Georg Reifferscheid and Dr. Sebastian Buchinger (the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) )
Support:
TBN
Selected Publications:
- Ben-Yoav, H., Biran, A., Sternheim, M., Belkin, S., Freeman, A., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Functional modeling of electrochemical whole-cell biosensors. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 181, pp. 479-485, 2013. Click to download paper
- Ofek Almog, R., Ben-Yoav, H., Sverdlov, Y., Shmilovich, T., Krylov, S., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Integrated polypyrrole flexible conductors for biochips and MEMS applications. Journal of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics vol. 2012, Article ID 850482, 2012. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Ofek Almog, R., Sverdlov, Y., Sternheim, M., Belkin, S., Freeman, A., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Modified working electrodes for electrochemical whole-cell microchips. Electrochimica Acta 82 (1), pp. 109-114, 2012. Click to download paper
- Cristea, D. G., Basch, M. E., Ben-Yoav, H., Tiponut, V., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Universal signal conditioning system for amperometric sensors. Advances in Electrical and Computer Engineering 12 (1), pp. 19-24, 2012. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Amzel, T., Biran, A., Sternheim, M., Belkin, S., Freeman, A., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Bacterial biofilm-based water toxicity sensor. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical 158 (1), pp. 366-371, 2011. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Amzel, T., Sternheim, M., Belkin, S., Rubin, A., Shacham-Diamand, Y., and Freeman, A. Signal amelioration of electrophoretically deposited whole-cell biosensors using external electric fields. Electrochimica Acta 56 (26), pp. 9666-9672, 2011. Click to download paper
- Biran, A., Ben-Yoav, H., Yagur-Kroll, S., Pedahzur, R., Buchinger, S., Shacham-Diamand, Y., Reifferscheid, G., and Belkin, S. Microbial genotoxicity bioreporters based on sulA activation. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry 400 (9), pp. 3013-3024, 2011. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H.*, Melamed, S.*, Freeman. A., Shacham-Diamand, Y., and Belkin, S. Whole cell biochips for bio-sensing: integration of live cells and inanimate surfaces. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 31(4), pp. 337-353, 2011. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Freeman, A., Sternheim, M., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. An electrochemical impedance model for integrated bacterial biofilms.Electrochimica Acta 56, pp. 7780-7786, 2011. Click to download paper
- Biran, A., Yagur-Kroll, S., Pedahzur, R., Buchinger, S., Reifferscheid, G., Ben-Yoav, H., Shacham-Diamand, Y., and Belkin, S. Bacterial genotoxicity bioreporters. Microbial Biotechnology 3(4), pp. 412-427, 2010. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Freeman, A., Sternheim, M., Fishelson, N., Rubin, A., Biran, A., Pedahzur, S., Belkin, S., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Electronically directed integration of whole-cell biosensors on bio-chips. ECS Transactions 33(8), pp. 49-58, 2010. Click to download paper
- Shacham-Diamand, Y., Belkin, S., Rishpon, J., Elad, T., Melamed, S., Biran, A., Yagur-Kroll, S., Almog, R., Daniel, R., Ben-Yoav, H., Rabner, A., Vernick, S., Elman, N., and Popovtzer, R. Optical and electrical interfacing technologies for living cell bio-chips. Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology 11(4), pp. 376-383, 2010. Click to download paper
- Buchinger, S., Grill, P., Morosow, V., Ben-Yoav, H., Shacham-Diamand, Y., Biran, A., Pedahzur, R., Belkin, S., and Reifferscheid, G. Evaluation of chrono-amperometric signal detection for the analysis of genotoxicity by a whole cell biosensor. Analytica Chimica Acta 659, pp. 122-128, 2010. Click to download paper
- Almog, R., Daniel, R., Vernick, S., Ron, A., Ben-Yoav, H., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. On-chip detection of cellular activity. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology 117, pp. 179-191, 2010. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Biran, A., Pedahzur, R., Belkin, S., Buchinger, S., Reifferscheid, G., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. A whole cell electrochemical biosensor for water genotoxicity bio-detection. Electrochimica Acta EMNT 2008 special issue 54(25), pp. 6113-6118, 2009. Click to download paper
- Ben-Yoav, H., Shacham-Diamand, Y., Freeman, A., Biran, A., Pedahzur, R., Belkin, S., Buchinger, S., and Reifferscheid, G. A novel microfluidic whole cell biosensor based on electrochemical detection for water toxicity analysis. ECS Transactions 16(11), pp. 187-197, 2008. Click to download paper
Bioluminescence-based whole-cell optical biochip for water toxicity analysis - The ToxiChip project
Bioluminescence-based whole cell biosensors are devices that can be very useful for environmental monitoring applications. The advantages of these devices are that they can be produced as a single-chip, low-power, rugged, inexpensive component, and can be deployed in a variety of non-laboratory settings. However, such biosensors encounter inherent problems in overall system light collection efficiency. The light emitted from the bioluminescent microbial cells is isotropic and passes through various media before it reaches the photon detectors. We studied the bioluminescence distribution and propagation in microbial whole cell biochips. Optical emission and detection were modeled and simulated using an optical ray tracing method. Light emission, transfer and detection were simulated and optimized with respect to two fundamental system parameters: system geometry and bacterial concentration. Optimization elucidated some of the optical aspects of the biochip, e.g. detector radius and bacterial fixation radius. Understanding theses aspects may establish a basis for future optimization of similar chips.
Selected Accomplishments:
TBN
Students and Postdocs:
TBN
Collaborators:
- Professor Shimshon Belkin (the Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Support:
TBN
Selected Publications:
- Ben-Yoav, H., Elad, T., Shlomovits, O., Belkin, S., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Optical modeling of bioluminescence in whole cell biosensors. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 24(7), pp. 1969-1973, 2009. Click to download paper
- Elman, N. M.*, Ben-Yoav, H.*, Sternheim, M., Rosen, R., Krylov, S., and Shacham-Diamand, Y. Towards toxicity detection using a lab-on-chip based on the integration of MOEMS and whole-cell sensors. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 23, pp. 1631-1636, 2008. Click to download paper