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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/D001722/1
Title: Detecting Bioelectrical Activity of Individual Living Cells
Principal Investigator: Geim, Professor A
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Technical Software Consultants Ltd
Department: Physics and Astronomy
Organisation: University of Manchester, The
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 July 2005 Ends: 30 September 2006 Value (£): 85,576
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Cells Surfaces & Interfaces
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
For complex organisms such as mammals, their biological activity can be recorded and studied by measuring electrocardiograms and electroencephalograms, which are widely used in medical diagnostics. Simpler life forms can also generate local electrical fields (e.g., when firing, neurons produce relatively large voltages). One may reasonably expect that even simplest life forms such as individual cells or bacteria generate some sort of electric fields around them. Indeed, from the physics point of view, life is a motion of ions. To stay alive, individual cells have to constantly transfer ions through their membranes. Having developed a measurement technique capable of detecting the charge of a single ion in a submicron volume at ambient conditions, we have become interested in detecting possible electrical signals associated with ion currents in and around living cells. One might consider these signals as a sort of electrocardiograms for individual bacteria. Such a technique could be used for monitoring the wellbeing of small live organisms and examining their response to new drugs and chemicals.
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Organisation Website: http://www.man.ac.uk