Connecting Biology to Electronics: Molecular Communication via Redox Modality

Abstract

Biology and electronics are both expert at for accessing, analyzing, and responding to information. Biology uses ions, small molecules, and macromolecules to receive, analyze, store, and transmit information, whereas electronic devices receive input in the form of electromagnetic radiation, process the information using electrons, and then transmit output as electromagnetic waves. Generating the capabilities to connect biology-electronic modalities offers exciting opportunities to shape the future of biosensors, point-of-care medicine, and wearable/implantable devices. Redox reactions offer unique opportunities for bio-device communication that spans the molecular modalities of biology and electrical modality of devices. Here, an approach to search for redox information through an interactive electrochemical probing that is analogous to sonar is adopted. The capabilities of this approach to access global chemical information as well as information of specific redox-active chemical entities are illustrated using recent examples. An example of the use of synthetic biology to recognize external molecular information, process this information through intracellular signal transduction pathways, and generate output responses that can be detected by electrical modalities is also provided. Finally, exciting results in the use of redox reactions to actuate biology are provided to illustrate that synthetic biology offers the potential to guide biological response through electrical cues.

Hydrogel Patterning with Catechol Enables Networked Electron Flow

“…Emerging biological research indicates that redox serves as an independent modality that is fundamentally different from the ionic electrical modality and from other molecularly specific signaling modalities. [ 1–6 ] This redox modality is especially important for biology's interaction with its environment through an immune system. For instance, an initial immune response to a pathogen threat by both plants and animals is the generation of reactive species (e.g., reactive oxygen species) that defend against the pathogen and, in some cases, also provides the signals that guide wound healing.…”

Selective assembly and functionalization of miniaturized redox capacitor inside microdevices for microbial toxin and mammalian cell cytotoxicity analyses

“…Also, we have recently immobilized engineered bacteria onto BBRC films for expanded biological functions beyond biorecognition, such as signaling. 53 While we envision this work provides an alternative, simple, and promising avenue for bridging electronics to biological systems assembled within microfluidic platforms, we can envision many additional applications perhaps not confined by fluidics but equally as effective -the sum of these approaches will enrich our abilities to study biology in a variety of contexts.…”

Electrobiofabrication: electrically based fabrication with biologically derived materials

“…The catechol-chitosan film served as a redox-capacitor to amplify the electrical output associated with this redox-active intermediate [265,266].…”