Respiratory Endothelial Cell Sensor for Real-Time Air Toxicity Monitoring

Because endothelial cells organize to form a tight barrier under normal conditions, several electrical devices have been used to measure the electrical resistance of endothelial cell monolayers. An Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) system can measure the electrical impedance of endothelial cell monolayers on gold electrodes in real-time. This system is extremely sensitive to any changes in the integrity of the endothelial cell barrier and therefore would make an ideal biosensor to detect changes in endothelial cell "health" after exposure to a broad range of chemical and biological warfare agents. Although this device has been used for several years to assess endothelial cell monolayer integrity after exposure to a variety of agents, to date this system has not been exploited for development as an airborne toxin biosensor. We believe such a novel system could be developed by integrating current ECIS systems with respiratory endothelial cells, microfluidics, and air sampling technology. In this Phase I, Agave BioSystems proposes to adapt ECIS technology for detection of airborne chemical and biological agents using respiratory endothelial cells as a broad and highly sensitive detector, state-of the art air samplers for monitoring the environment, and microfluidic technology for continuous delivery of samples to the biosensor.