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Regensburg 2004 – scientific programme

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AKB: Biologische Physik

AKB 50: Poster Session "Biological Physics"

AKB 50.77: Poster

Friday, March 12, 2004, 10:30–13:00, B

High-K Coatings on Silicon Chips for Capacitive Stimulation of Cells. — •Frank Wallrapp and Peter Fromherz — Max Planck Institut für Biochemie, Abt. Membran- und Neurophysik, Martinsried, Germany

So far leech and snail neurons were capacitively stimulated with silicon chips that were insulated from electrolyte by a thin layer of SiO2. To enhance capacitance we replaced SiO2 by the high-k materials HfO2 and TiO2. Capacitance and leakage current were measured in an electrolyte-insulator-silicon (EIS) configuration. Considering leakage current and biocompatibility, HfO2 and TiO2 both proved to be suitable for neuronal stimulation. Due to the higher capacitance, however, TiO2 is superior in applications. We cultured nerve cells from rat hippocampi on TiO2-coated chips and recorded the intracellular voltage by patch-clamp techniques. Applying bursts of positive voltage pulses to stimulation areas, we could reliably elicit action potentials in the neurons. The new high-k coated chips open up the way to new applications, e.g. opening voltage-gated potassium channels in stably transfected HEK293 cells (Ulbrich & Fromherz, in preparation) and stimulating rat brain slices (Hutzler & Fromherz, in preparation).

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