A team of scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) managed to use graphene as a sensor capable of differentiating between healthy astrocyte brain cells and their glioblastoma doppelgängers. The technique works on individual cells that are placed in contact with graphene, which is just a lattice of carbon only one atom thick.
The carbon atoms composing the graphene share their electrons, allowing the charge to move around freely across the surface. When the material is placed in contact with a cell, the graphene’s charge distribution changes depending on the nature of the cell. Cancer cells have higher metabolic activity levels, causing more electrons to gather on their surface. These electrons push away electrons on the graphene, something that a comparable healthy cell doesn’t do to the same extent.
The change in the charge distribution on the graphene changes its energy of atomic vibration, something that can be detected using Raman spectroscopy. This final step is what actually produces the final result that indicates whether the cells is cancerous or not.
Study in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces: Cancer Cell Hyperactivity and Membrane Dipolarity Monitoring via Raman Mapping of Interfaced Graphene: Toward Non-Invasive Cancer Diagnostics…
More from UIC: First use of graphene to detect cancer cells…
Hat tip: Graphene-info…