Controlled modification of electrochemical microsystems with polyethylenimine/reduced graphene oxide using electrophoretic deposition: Sensing of dopamine levels in meat samples.

Microsystems play an important role in many biological and environmental applications. The integration of electrical interfaces into such miniaturized systems provides new opportunities for electrochemical sensing where high sensitivity and selectivity towards the analyte are requested. This can be only achieved upon controlled functionalization of the working electrode, a challenge for compact microsystems. In this work, we demonstrate the benefit of electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of reduced graphene oxide/polyethylenimine (rGO/PEI) for the selective modification of a gold (Au) microelectrode in a microsystem comprising a Pt counter and a Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The functionalized microsystem was successfully applied for the sensing of dopamine with a detection limit of 50nM. Additionally, the microsystem exhibited good performance for the detection of dopamine levels in meat samples.

Virtual firm as a role-playing tool for biomedical education.

The paper describes design of a role-playing tool based on the experience of the practice firm which allows participants to obtain relevant and practical on-the-job experience. The students played the roles of the employees and the applicants for vacant positions at the virtual firm - a small business specialized in biomedical sector - founded to design the demonstration vehicle for a biomedical device. We found that this innovative concept may be used to improve the young engineers performance and to facilitate their post-graduate integration.