The term seizures includes a wide array of different disorders with variable etiology, which currently represent one of the most important classes of neurological illnesses. As a consequence, many different antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are currently av...
Nav1.5 is the pore forming α-subunit of the cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel that initiates cardiac action potential and regulates the human heartbeat. A normal level of Nav1.5 is crucial to cardiac function and health. Over- or under-expression...
The multifaceted role of biological membranes prompted early the development of artificial lipid-based models with a primary view of reconstituting the natural functions in vitro so as to study and exploit chemoreception for sensor engineering. Over...
Calcium ions participate in the regulation of almost all biological functions of the body, especially in cardiac excitation–contraction coupling, acting as vital signaling through ion channels. Various cardiovascular drugs exert their effects v...
We developed ion-selective field-effect transistor (FET) sensors with floating electrodes for the monitoring of the potassium ion release by the stimulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) on PC12 cells. Here, ion-selective valinomycin-...
In oviparous marine fishes, the hyperosmotic induction of sperm motility in seawater (SW) is well established, however, the potential function of ion channels in the maintenance of post activated spermatozoon swimming performance remains largely unkn...
Determining the effective concentration (i.e., activity) of ions in and around living cells is important to our understanding of the contribution of those ions to cellular function. Moreover, monitoring changes in ion activities in and around cells i...
Sperm ion channels are associated with the quality and type of flagellar movement, and their differential regulation is crucial for sperm function during specific phases. The principal potassium ion channel is responsible for the majority of K+ ion f...
The aim of this work is to investigate the feasibility of ion beam analysis techniques for monitoring swift heavy ion track formation. First, the use of the in situ Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in channeling mode to observe damage build-up...
The functional activity of channel-forming peptides and proteins is most directly verified by monitoring the flow of physiologically relevant inorganic ions, such as Na+, K+ and Cl−, along the ion channels. Electrical current measurements across bila...
One of the numerous toxins produced by Clostridium perfringens is Clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE), a polypeptide with a molecular mass of 35.5 kDa exhibiting three different domains. Domain one is responsible for receptor binding, domain tw...
pH sensors based on a nanostructured ion-sensitive field-effect transistor have characteristics such as fast response, high sensitivity and miniaturization, and they have been widely used in biomedicine, food detection and disease monitoring. However...
Some hearing, vestibular, and vision disorders are imputable to voltage-gated Ca2+ channels of the sensory cells. These channels convey a large Ca2+ influx despite extracellular Na+ being 70-fold more concentrated than Ca2+; such high selectivity is...
Since the initial use of biological ion channels to detect single-stranded genomic base pair differences, label-free and highly sensitive resistive pulse sensing (RPS) with nanopores has made remarkable progress in single-molecule analysis. By monito...
Accurate monitoring of sodium and potassium ions in biological fluids is crucial for diseases related to electrolyte imbalance. Low-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes can be used to construct biochemical sensors based on high-performance...
The allosteric coupling between activation and inactivation processes is a common feature observed in K+ channels. Particularly, in the prokaryotic KcsA channel the K+ conduction process is controlled by the inner gate, which is activated by acidic p...
Lithium-ion batteries can undergo rapid and spatially nonuniform temperature variations during high-rate operation, requiring multi-point temperature monitoring with high temporal resolution for effective thermal management. This work presents a high...
Plants and insect herbivores are in a relentless battle to outwit each other. Plants have evolved various strategies to detect herbivores and mount an effective defense system against them. These defenses include physical and structural barriers such...
A plug-based microfluidic system based on the principle of the light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS) is proposed. The LAPS is a semiconductor-based chemical sensor, which has a free addressability of the measurement point on the sensing surf...
G protein-gated inwardly rectifying K+ (GIRK) channels form highly active heterotetramers in the body, such as in neurons (GIRK1/GIRK2 or GIRK1/2) and heart (GIRK1/GIRK4 or GIRK1/4). Based on three-dimensional atomic resolution structures for GIRK2 h...
A novel approach utilizing current feedback for the cytoplasmic microinjection of biological cells is proposed. In order to realize the cytoplasmic microinjection on small adherent cells (diameter < 30 μm and thickness < 10 μm), an electrical m...
Intracellular ionic strength regulates myriad cellular processes that are fundamental to cellular survival and proliferation, including protein activity, aggregation, phase separation, and cell volume. It could be altered by changes in the activity o...
Leaching mining of ion-adsorption rare earths degrades soil organic matter and hampers vegetation recovery. High-resolution UAV remote sensing enables large-scale monitoring of reclamation, yet vegetation detection accuracy is constrained by key chal...
Biofilm formation in microfluidic channels is difficult to detect because sampling volumes are too small for conventional turbidity measurements. To detect biofilm formation, we used an ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) measurement system...
Ion channels play a crucial role in a wide range of biological processes, including cell cycle regulation and cancer progression. In particular, the transient receptor potential (TRP) family of channels has emerged as a promising therapeutic target d...
Copper ions (Cu2+) are the third most essential transition metal ions critical to human health. Rapid detection of Cu2+ in water and biological fluids is of significant importance. In this study, we develop a sensitive multi-channel paper microfluidi...
Spaceborne spectrometers are key optical payloads for global and regional greenhouse gas (GHGs) monitoring. With the increasing demands for high-precision and high-efficiency monitoring, spectrometers are required to provide a wide swath, high spatia...
The GTP-binding protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play important roles in physiology and neuronal signaling. More than a thousand genes, excluding the olfactory receptors, have been identified that encode these integral membrane proteins. Their pharm...
The thermo- and pain-sensitive Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 3 and 8 (TRPM3 and TRPM8) ion channels are functionally associated in the lipid rafts of the plasma membrane. We have already described that cholesterol and sphingomyelin depletio...
Ionic gradients play a crucial role in the physiology of the human body, ranging from metabolism in cells to muscle contractions or brain activities. To monitor these ions, inexpensive, label-free chemical sensing devices are needed. Field-effect tra...
Owing to highly desired requirements in advanced disease diagnosis, therapy, and health monitoring, noncontact mechanosensation active matrix has drawn considerable attention. To satisfy the practical demands of high energy efficiency, in this report...
By providing ~70% of the eye’s refractive power, the preocular tear film is essential for optimal vision. However, its integrity is often jeopardized by environmental and pathologic conditions that accelerate evaporation and cause sight-impairing dry...
Phagocytosis (and endocytosis) is an unusual cellular process that results in the formation of a novel subcellular organelle, the phagosome. This phagosome contains not only the internalised target of phagocytosis but also the external medium, creati...
Recently, environmental pollution resulting from industrial waste has been emerging in an endless stream. The industrial waste contains chemical materials, heavy metal ions, and other toxic materials. Once the industrial waste is discharged without s...
The special sense of taste guides and guards food intake and is essential for body maintenance. Salty and sour tastes are sensed via ion channels or gated ion channels while G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) of the taste receptor type 1 (T1R) famil...
Heart rate variability is a useful measure for monitoring the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability measurements have gained significant demand not only in science, but also in the public due to the fairly low price and wide accessibility...
An improved understanding of fundamental physiological principles and progressive pathophysiological processes in human articular joints (e.g., shoulders, knees, elbows) requires detailed investigations of two principal cell types: synovial fibroblas...
We present spectroscopic diagnostic methods that allow us to estimate the gas and the electron temperature in emerged lightning stroke channels (from thunderclouds) observed by the photometers and cameras of the Atmosphere Space Interaction Monitor (...
Mercury ion is one of the most widespread heavy metal contaminants which can accumulate in the body through multiple channels, posing a detrimental impact on human health. We demonstrate a simple and low-cost method for the detection of Hg2+ assisted...
Salinity is one of the most important factors affecting the nitrogen-removal efficiency of denitrifying bacteria. A series of different ion combinations and salinity gradients were carried out to clarify the effects of ion types and concentrations on...
Lead-ion (Pb2+) contamination in drinking water poses a serious threat to public health, but conventional laboratory-based methods rely on bulky equipment and are unsuitable for on-site monitoring. Here, we develop a wireless monitoring system based...
Many factories were built and scattered around the farmlands in Taiwan due to inappropriate land use planning. Illegal effluent discharge of high concentration of metals from the nearby factories has been threatening the farmlands, causing damages to...
Both ion fluxes and changes of cytosolic pH take an active part in the signal transduction of different environmental stimuli. Here we studied the anoxia-induced alteration of cytosolic K+ concentration, [K+]cyt, and cytosolic pH, pHcyt, in rice and...
The post-synaptic density protein 95 (PSD95) is a crucial scaffolding protein participating in the organization and regulation of synapses. PSD95 interacts with numerous molecules, including neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels. The functional...
Electroosmotic flow (EOF) commonly involves inhomogeneous fluids in practical applications. EOF hysteresis, which is defined as direction-dependent flow behavior, has been extensively investigated for dissimilar solution pair systems. Hitherto, there...
Alexandrium spp. blooms produce a range of toxins, including spirolides, goniodomins, and paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs). Of these, PSTs are the most impactful due to their high affinity for voltage-gated sodium ion channels in nerve cell membrane...
Long-read sequencing technologies, particularly those developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), have transformed genome sequencing by enabling high-resolution analysis of complex microbial communities. Among ONT devices, the MinION remains aff...
We present an overview of the concentrations and distributions of water-soluble ion species and elemental components in ambient particulate matter for five measurement sites in southern Italy with the aim of investigating the influence of the differe...
We provide a theory for employing Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements to determine altered heteropentameric ion channel stoichiometries in intracellular compartments of living cells. We simulate FRET within nicotinic receptors (nACh...
Antigen detection provides rapid and convenient diagnosis of respiratory infections. This study develops an innovative dual-fluorescence aptasensing method based on polydopamine-functionalized MXene (PDA-MXene) for the simultaneous detection of spike...
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