Listening to the breaths of 1,000 cells.Listening to the breaths of 1,000 cells Like a stone dropped into a lake, biochemical changes biochemical changes (bī·ō·keˈmik· in a cell ripple across its sea of metabolism. And as different stones produce similar ripples, many biomolecules This page aims to list articles on Wikipedia that describe particular biomolecules or types of biomolecules. This list is not necessarily complete or up to date - if you see an article that should be here but isn't (or one that shouldn't be here but is), please update the page have common effects, for example, changing the rate at which mammalian cells turn food (glucose) and oxygen into energy and waste products, mostly lactic acid lactic acid, CH3CHOHCO2H, a colorless liquid organic acid. It is miscible with water or ethanol. Lactic acid is a fermentation product of lactose (milk sugar); it is present in sour milk, koumiss, leban, yogurt, and cottage cheese. and carbon dioxide carbon dioxide, chemical compound, CO2, a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that is about one and one-half times as dense as air under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. . Using these products as reporter molecules, a team of scientists from Molecular Devices Molecular Devices Corporation is a leading supplier of high-performance bioanalytical measurement systems that accelerate and improve drug discovery and other life sciences research. Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif., and Stanford University has developed a biosensor A device that detects and analyzes body movement, temperature or fluids and turns it into an electronic signal. See lab on a chip and data glove. Biosensor that measures the metabolism of as few as 1,000 cells under different chemical and physical conditions. The scientists say the biosensor might serve as an alternative for some animal testing and as a means for screening candidate drugs. Called a silicon microphysiometer, the device monitors metabolism by measuring acidity changes of a nutrient bath that flows over tumor and other test cells stuck to a flat silicon base or immobilized in tiny wells micromachined into the base. The bath's acidity depends on the cells' explusion of lactic acid and carbon dioxide. When liquid flows through the biosensor, the acidity remains constant. Stopping the flow for several-minute periods, though, allows the acidic waste molecules to accumulate in amounts determined by the hormones, drugs or other test chemicals dissolved in the bath. In the Oct. 13 SCIENCE, the researchers reported using their biosensor to screen a panel of eye irritants previously evaluated by the Draize Test, a consumer safety test in which chemicals are applied to the eyes of rabbits. The irritants depressed metabolism in test cells by amounts that closely parallel Draize test results. The researchers say that in addition to providing a possible alternative to in vivo in vivo /in vi·vo/ (ve´vo) [L.] within the living body. in vi·vo adj. Within a living organism. in vivo adv. toxicological tests and a tool for basic molecular biological studies, the biosensor may help doctors to identify new compounds that kill cancer cells or to choose which cancer drug to use with particular patients. |
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