Biohybrid volatile organic compound sensing system

A biohybrid sensor is reported to integrate live insect antennae with microelectrode arrays. High resolution recording of voltage responses generated by olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs) were obtained in response to a panel of four volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at two concentrations, 20 parts per billion (ppb) and 20 parts per million (ppm). Biohybrid sensor lifetime was sustained by a novel microfluidic platform with sensor responses acquired at 24 hours, 48 hours, 7 days, and 14 days post resection of antenna from the host. VOC identity was classified by providing OSN firing rate histograms as input into a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP ANN). Biohybrid sensor response was found to be affected by anatomical location and VOC identity and thus influenced classification accuracies. Significant classification accuracies were achieved at the 24-hour and 14-day timepoints. Toluene at the 14-day timepoint elicited a unique response resulting in 100% classification at the distal anatomical location. We believe this works provides a framework for utilizing biohybrid sensing systems for VOC detection and identification.