All-Electronic Extracellular pH Control

Spatiotemporal regulation of pH through electronic means offers significant promise for influencing cell system behaviors and functions. However, typical methods, which rely on diffusion, are slow and lack specificity, making real-time pH quantification at micro-scales challenging. We have developed an electrical approach utilizing graphene transistor-based pH sensors, to accurately characterize pH within cellular systems. This approach is fast, yielding results in mere seconds, and offers high spatial resolution (tens of micrometers) and a precision with an error margin of less than 0.1 pH units. Using this approach, we demonstrate real-time control of cardiomyocytic calcium channel closure. This approach paves the way to next-generation high-spatiotemporal-resolution biological and physiological investigations and holds great potential for advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.