Silk Fibroin: An Emerging Biocompatible Material for Application of Enzymes and Whole Cells in Bioelectronics and Bioanalytical Sciences.

Enzymes and whole cells serve as the active biological entities in a myriad of applications including bioprocesses, bioanalytics, and bioelectronics. Conserving the natural activity of these functional biological entities during their prolonged use is one of the major goals for validating their practical applications. Silk fibroin (SF) has emerged as a biocompatible material to interface with enzymes as well as whole cells. These biomaterials can be tailored both physically and chemically to create excellent scaffolds of different forms such as fibers, films, and powder for immobilization and stabilization of enzymes. The secondary structures of the SF-protein can be attuned to generate hydrophobic/hydrophilic pockets suitable to create the biocompatible microenvironments. The fibrous nature of the SF protein with a dominant hydrophobic property may also serve as an excellent support for promoting cellular adhesion and growth. This review compiles and discusses the recent literature on the application of SF as a biocompatible material at the interface of enzymes and cells in various fields, including the emerging area of bioelectronics and bioanalytical sciences.

Development of an aptamer-based field effect transistor biosensor for quantitative detection of Plasmodium falciparum glutamate dehydrogenase in serum samples.

There has been a continuous strive to develop portable, stable, sensitive and low cost detection system for malaria to meet the demand of effective screening actions in developing countries where the disease is most endemic. Herein, we report an aptamer-based field effect transistor (aptaFET) biosensor, developed by using an extended gate field effect transistor with inter-digitated gold microelectrodes (IDµE) for the detection of the malaria biomarker Plasmodium falciparum glutamate dehydrogenase (PfGDH) in serum samples. A 90 mer long ssDNA aptamer (NG3) selective to PfGDH was used in the aptaFET to capture the target protein. The intrinsic surface net charge of the captured protein led to change in gate potential of the aptaFET device, which could be correlated to the concentration of the protein. This biosensor exhibited a sensitive response in broad dynamic range of 100 fM -10 nM with limits of detection of 16.7 pM and 48.6 pM in spiked buffer and serum samples, respectively. The high selectivity of the biosensor for PfGDH was verified by testing relevant analogous human and parasitic proteins on the device. Overall, the results validated the application potential of the developed aptaFET for diagnosis of both symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria.

Advances in developing rapid, reliable and portable detection systems for alcohol.

Development of portable, reliable, sensitive, simple, and inexpensive detection system for alcohol has been an instinctive demand not only in traditional brewing, pharmaceutical, food and clinical industries but also in rapidly growing alcohol based fuel industries. Highly sensitive, selective, and reliable alcohol detections are currently amenable typically through the sophisticated instrument based analyses confined mostly to the state-of-art analytical laboratory facilities. With the growing demand of rapid and reliable alcohol detection systems, an all-round attempt has been made over the past decade encompassing various disciplines from basic and engineering sciences. Of late, the research for developing small-scale portable alcohol detection system has been accelerated with the advent of emerging miniaturization techniques, advanced materials and sensing platforms such as lab-on-chip, lab-on-CD, lab-on-paper etc. With these new inter-disciplinary approaches along with the support from the parallel knowledge growth on rapid detection systems being pursued for various targets, the progress on translating the proof-of-concepts to commercially viable and environment friendly portable alcohol detection systems is gaining pace. Here, we summarize the progress made over the years on the alcohol detection systems, with a focus on recent advancement towards developing portable, simple and efficient alcohol sensors.

Thin films of silk fibroin and its blend with chitosan strongly promote biofilm growth of Synechococcus sp. BDU 140432.

The activating role of different polymer thin films coated over polystyrene support on the Synechococcus sp. biofilm growth was examined concurrently by measuring biofilm florescence using a dye and by measuring cell density in the isolated biofilm. Compared to blank (no coating), the increase in biofilm formation (%) on silk, chitosan, silk-chitosan (3:2) blend, polyaniline, osmium, and Nafion films were 27.73 (31.16), 21.55 (23.74), 37.21 (38.34), 5.35 (8.96), 6.70 (6.55) and (nil), respectively with corresponding cell density (%) shown in the parentheses. This trend of biofilm formation on the films did not significantly vary for Escherichia coli and Lactobacillus plantarum strains. The films of 20 residues long each of glycine-alanine repeat peptide, which mimics a silk fibroin motif, and a hydrophobic glycine-valine repeat peptide, increased the biofilm growth by 13.53 % and 26.08 %, respectively. Silk and blend films showed highest adhesion unit (0.48-0.49), adhesion rate ((4.2-4.8)×10(-6), m/s) and Gibbs energy of adhesion (-8.5 to -8.6kT) with Synechococcus sp. The results confirmed interplay of electrostatic and hydrophobic interaction between cell-surface and polymer films for promoting rapid biofilm growth. This study established that the thin films of silk and the blend (3:2) promote rapid biofilm growth for all the tested microorganisms.