Biologically powered chip created
System combines biological ion channels with solid-state transistors to create a new kind of electronics
Date:
December 7, 2015
Source:
Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science
(http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/12/151207081815_1_540x360.jpg)
Illustration depicting biocell attached to CMOS integrated circuit with membrane containing sodium-potassium pumps in pore.
Credit: Trevor Finney and Jared Roseman/Columbia Engineering
Columbia Engineering researchers have, for the first time, harnessed the molecular machinery of living systems to power an integrated circuit from adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy currency of life. They achieved this by integrating a conventional solid-state complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuit with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, opening the door to creating entirely new artificial systems that contain both biological and solid-state components. The study, led by Ken Shepard, Lau Family Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, is published online Dec. 7 in Nature Communications.
"In combining a biological electronic device with CMOS, we will be able to create new systems not possible with either technology alone," says Shepard. "We are excited at the prospect of expanding the palette of active devices that will have new functions, such as harvesting energy from ATP, as was done here, or recognizing specific molecules, giving chips the potential to taste and smell. This was quite a unique new direction for us and it has great potential to give solid-state systems new capabilities with biological components."
{more} http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151207081815.htm
Cool. The ATP powered ion pumps made a battery to power the chip.
Quote from: BillT on December 08, 2015, 04:16:35 PM
Cool. The ATP powered ion pumps made a battery to power the chip.
They're using unique things with pacemakers now too....
The prototype pacemaker that uses the rhythm of your heart to keep your heart in rhythm has already been tested successfully in pigs. The next stop: humans.""The Swiss are famous for making the best watches. Now two engineers from Switzerland have shown it's possible to build a pacemaker that winds up like an automatic wristwatch and runs without a battery.
Their prototype, presented at a cardiology conference in Europe in late August, runs by harvesting energy from the normal beat of the human heart.
University of Bern cardiologist and engineer Rolf Vogel started working on the idea four years ago and based the first design on a commercially available automatic wristwatch, a technology first invented in 1777. He and his student, Adrian Zurbuchen, first removed all unnecessary parts to reduce its weight and size and then developed a custom housing that allowed them to suture the device directly onto the surface of the heart. From there, it just works as it would on your wrist. The motion of the heart rotates the clock mechanism, progressively winding a mechanical spring. The fully charged spring slowly unwinds and spins a tiny electrical generator.""