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Amperometric Detection of Dopamine via Noble Nanowires Using Gold

Undergraduate #14
Discipline: Biological Sciences
Subcategory: Biomedical Engineering

Ronquiajah Bowman - Norfolk State University
Co-Author(s): Apryl Fitz, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; Obadiah K. Koech, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; Montrey D. Freeman, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; Anton Shimkevitch, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; Seonhye Han, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia; and Hargsoon Yoon, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, Virginia.



Dopamine is a chemical that is created in the brain and in the body’s Adrenal Medulla. It has many responsibilities throughout all body systems including vasodilation in the cardiovascular system, insulin production in the endocrine system, and pleasure recognition in the brain. In the Kidney’s, dopamine is responsible for urine excretions and regulating sodium levels and in the Immune system dopamine plays a role in reducing lymphocyte activity. In the brain, dopamine is referred to as a neurotransmitter because of its synaptic transmission properties. The neurotransmitter dopamine is only synthesized by dopaminergic neurons containing the enzymes tyrosine hydroxylase and dopa decarboxylase. Dopamine deficiency in the Basal ganglia cells in the brain causes Parkinson’s disease and other dopamine deficiencies contribute to depression and muscular fatigue. The overproduction of dopamine has been associated with Schizophrenia, Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and cocaine addiction. A biosensor is necessary to measure dopamine levels because of its vast physiological and psychological applications in the body and brain. We have fabricated a biosensor using photolithography and a series of electrochemical deposition techniques. Our biosensor consist of: a glass substrate, titanium adhesive to a gold plate with gold nanowires grown by a template assisted bonding technique to increase device sensitivity by incrementing surface reaction area. We assessed the sensitivity and detection limit of our biosensor via the amperometry technique, which allows us to measure the diffused current resulted from our various dopamine concentrated solutions by applying several step voltages. The result of amperometry presents the dopamine sensor with vertically aligned gold nanowires can be utilized for reliable real-time In-vitro dopamine sensing. For future research, we plan to incubate and culture our own dopaminergic neurons so that we can access any dopaminergic behavior.

Not Submitted

Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF CREST GRANT

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Hargsoon Yoon, hyoon@nsu.edu

Role: In this research I I formed solutions used in the conducted amperometry tests on our biosensor in order to assess its sensitivity. I also played a role in the fabrication of the biosensor by assessing the lengths of our nanowires by taking S.E.M Images.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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