omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

TP066
Johannes Posch
Tecan Austria GmbH
Untersbergstrasse 1A
GroedigA-5082 Austria
johannes.posch@tecan.com
Co-Author(s)
G. Probst, K. Kratochwil, H. Bauer,
R. Fuchs, G. Kreil, M. Köprunner,
Austrian Academy of Science, Institute of Molecular Biology
Automation of In Situ Hybridization on Tecan HS Series Hybridization Stations
In situ hybridization (ISH) is a widely used technique in genome research to identify the function and interaction of
genes and gene products in immobilized tissue sections. ISH provides a possibility to identify spatial and temporal
activation of specific genes in specific diseases. With the HS 400 and 4800 Hybridization Stations, Tecan provides
a series of instruments that are designed to fully automate microarray experiments but also to offer the flexibility
to semi-automate in situ hybridization experiments. The HS Hybridization Stations eliminate manual errors and
guarantee execution under constant conditions.
TP067
Shalini Prasad
University of California, Riverside
Electrical Engineering
A 220 Bourns Hall
Riverside, California 92521
shals_prasad@hotmail.com
Neurons as Sensors: Mixed Chemical Agent Sensing
179
Co-Author(s)
Xuan Zhang
Mo Yang
Cengiz Ozkan
Mihri Ozkan
There is a need to develop small, highly sensitive, accurate, portable biosensors that can be used in real time
situations which has the ability to distinguish between various chemical agents. Current methods rely on chemical
properties or molecular recognition to identify a particular agent. These are limited in their capability to detect
large number of possible agents both known and unknown, characterize the functionality of the known agents and
predict human performance decrements. There is still a major gap in performing functional assays in the laboratory
and implementing this concept in the field. This can be overcome by using cell based bio-sensors (CBB’s). We
have designed and implemented novel CBB using single neurons as sensors that achieve single cell sensitivity and
single agent selectivity using dielectrophoresis. We show here the capability of this sensor to accurately identify
specific chemical agents from an environment containing a mixture of chemical agents.There is a special focus
on sensing of gasoline and diesel. The chemical identification was performed by frequency domain analysis of the
extracellular signal which generated a unique signature pattern vector corresponding to specific chemical agents.
A time domain analysis was performed to determine the speed of response. The goal of the research is to develop
a single cell sensor applicable in real time field conditions. The physiological changes in the cell due to the specific
agent in terms of modifications to the ion channels are also determined simultaneously in a visual manner by the
application of calcium and potassium dyes.
POSTER ABSTRACTS