Scalable Production of Highly-Sensitive Nanosensors Based on Graphene Functionalized with a Designed G Protein-Coupled Receptor

TL;DR

This paper presents a scalable, all-electronic graphene-based biosensor for opioids, utilizing engineered receptor proteins for high sensitivity and selectivity, with potential applications in drug detection and monitoring.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel biosensor platform combining engineered G protein-coupled receptors with graphene transistors, achieving high sensitivity and scalable fabrication.

Findings

Detection limit of 10 pg/mL for naltrexone

High device yield (>98%) in fabrication

Enhanced receptor stability through computational redesign

Abstract

We have developed a novel, all-electronic biosensor for opioids that consists of an engineered mu opioid receptor protein, with high binding affinity for opioids, chemically bonded to a graphene field-effect transistor to read out ligand binding. A variant of the receptor protein that provided chemical recognition was computationally redesigned to enhance its solubility and stability in an aqueous environment. A shadow mask process was developed to fabricate arrays of hundreds of graphene transistors with average mobility of ~1500 cm2 V-1 s-1 and yield exceeding 98%. The biosensor exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity for the target naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist, with a detection limit of 10 pg/mL.