Microelectronic sensor system for microphysiological application on living cells

Living cells can be considered as complex biochemical plants. Biochemical and biophysical processes enable a cell to maintain itself, to grow, to reproduce and to communicate with the environment. Getting more information about the multifunctional cellular processing of input- and output-signals in different cellular plants is essential for basic research as well as for various fields of biomedical applications. For in-vitro investigations on living cells, the cellular environment differs from the native environment found in vivo. As a first approach for on-line monitoring of cellular reactions under well controlled experimental conditions we have developed the so called Cell Monitoring System (CMS). It allows parallel and non-invasive measurement of different parameters from cellular systems by the use of microsensors. Microelectronic sensors are the adequate choice for the non-invasive measurement of environmental-as well as in- and output parameters of cells. In this paper we present a measurement system with pH-sensitive ISFETs (ionsensitive fieldeffect transistors) for the measurement of extracellular pH-related signals on cells and tissues.