• Molecules and Cells
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.451-460
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• 2023

Animals generally prefer nutrients and avoid toxic and harmful chemicals. Recent behavioral and physiological studies have identified that sweet-sensing gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) in Drosophila melanogaster mediate appetitive behaviors toward fatty acids. Sweet-sensing GRN activation requires the function of the ionotropic receptors IR25a, IR56d, and IR76b, as well as the gustatory receptor GR64e. However, we reveal that hexanoic acid (HA) is toxic rather than nutritious to D. melanogaster. HA is one of the major components of the fruit Morinda citrifolia (noni). Thus, we analyzed the gustatory responses to one of major noni fatty acids, HA, via electrophysiology and proboscis extension response (PER) assay. Electrophysiological tests show this is reminiscent of arginine-mediated neuronal responses. Here, we determined that a low concentration of HA induced attraction, which was mediated by sweet-sensing GRNs, and a high concentration of HA induced aversion, which was mediated by bitter-sensing GRNs. We also demonstrated that a low concentration of HA elicits attraction mainly mediated by GR64d and IR56d expressed by sweet-sensing GRNs, but a high concentration of HA activates three gustatory receptors (GR32a, GR33a, and GR66a) expressed by bitter-sensing GRNs. The mechanism of sensing HA is biphasic in a dose dependent manner. Furthermore, HA inhibit sugar-mediated activation like other bitter compounds. Taken together, we discovered a binary HA-sensing mechanism that may be evolutionarily meaningful in the foraging niche of insects.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.750-753
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• 2016

Quorum sensing (QS) is a bacterium-to-bacterium cell communication mechanism allowing bio-cell network construction but such mechanism is not well defined yet. We construct a QS-based multiple access network (MAN) and then numerically analyse its average uplink channel capacity as well as BER performance over diffusion-based 3-D molecular communication channels.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.530-538
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• 2020

The Gustatory system enables animals to detect toxic bitter chemicals, which is critical for insects to survive food induced toxicity. Cucurbitacin is widely present in plants such as cucumber and gourds that acts as an anti-herbivore chemical and an insecticide. Cucurbitacin has a harmful effect on insect larvae as well. Although various beneficial effects of cucurbitacin such as alleviating hyperglycemia have also been documented, it is not clear what kinds of molecular sensors are required to detect cucurbitacin in nature. Cucurbitacin B, a major bitter component of bitter melon, was applied to induce action potentials from sensilla of a mouth part of the fly, labellum. Here we identify that only Gr33a is required for activating bitter-sensing gustatory receptor neurons by cucurbitacin B among available 26 Grs, 23 Irs, 11 Trp mutants, and 26 Gr-RNAi lines. We further investigated the difference between control and Gr33a mutant by analyzing binary food choice assay. We also measured toxic effect of Cucurbitacin B over 0.01 mM range. Our findings uncover the molecular sensor of cucurbitacin B in Drosophila melanogaster. We propose that the discarded shell of Cucurbitaceae can be developed to make a new insecticide.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.280-284
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• 2011

The mass change during the molecular interaction between explosive specific bio-receptors and target molecules has been measured using quartz crystal microbalance(QCM), which has a mass change detection limit up to ~ng/$cm^2$. The environmental effect on the molecular interaction has been evaluated. In the liquid phase molecular interaction experiments, the high selectivity of the bio-receptor to DNT compared with toluene has been shown and the sensitivity for various concentrations of DNT has been demonstrated.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.107-117
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• 2011

Biological sensory systems continuously monitor and analyze changes in real-world environments that are relevant to an animal's specific behavioral needs and goals. Understanding the sensory mechanisms and information processing principles that biological systems utilize for efficient sensory data acquisition may provide useful guidance for the design of smart-sensing systems in engineering applications. Weakly electric fish, which use self-generated electrical energy to actively sense their environment, provide an excellent model system for studying biological principles of sensory data acquisition. The electrosensory system enables these fish to hunt and navigate at night without the use of visual cues. To achieve reliable, real-time task performance, the electrosensory system implements a number of smart sensing strategies, including efficient stimulus encoding, multi-scale virtual sensor arrays, task-dependent filtering and online subtraction of sensory expectation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.413-413
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• 2014

In this paper, we present a fabrication method of functionalized gold nanostructures on flexible substrate that can be implemented for plasmonic sensing application. For biomolecular sensing, many researchers exploit unconventional lithography method like nanoimprint lithography (NIP), contact transfer lithography, soft lithography, colloidal transfer printing due to its usability and easy to functionalization. In particular, nanoimprint and contact transfer lithography need to have anti-adhesion layer for distinctive metallic properties on the flexible substrates. However, when metallic thin film was deposited on the anti-adhesion layer coated substrates, we discover much aggravation of the mold by repetitive use. Thus it would be impossible to get a high quality of metal nanostructure on the transferred substrate for developing flexible electronics based transfer printing. Here we demonstrate a method for nano-pillar mold and transfer the controllable nanoparticle array on the flexible substrates without an anti-adhesion layer. Also functionalization of gold was investigated by the different length of thiol applied for effectively localized surface plasmonic resonance sensing. First, a focused ion beam (FIB) and ICP-RIE are used to fabricate the nanoscale pillar array. Then gold metal layer is deposited onto the patterned nanostructure. The metallic 130 nm and 250 nm nanodisk pattern are transferred onto flexible polymer substrate by bi-layer functionalized contact imprinting which can be tunable surface energy interfaces. Different thiol reagents such as Thioglycolic acid (98%), 3-Mercaptopropionic acid (99%), 11-Mercaptoundecanoic acid (95%) and 16-Mercaptohexadecanoic acid (90%) are used. Overcoming the repeatedly usage of the anti-adhesion layer mold which has less uniformity and not washable interface, contact printing method using bi-layer gold array are not only expedient access to fabrication but also have distinctive properties including anti-adhesion layer free, functionalized bottom of the gold nano disk, repeatedly replicate the pattern on the flexible substrate. As a result we demonstrate the feasibility of flexible plasmonic sensing interface and anticipate that the method can be extended to variable application including the portable bio sensor via mass production of stable nanostructure array and other nanophotonic application.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.42 no.8
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• pp.569-578
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• 2019

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are nonselective cationic channels, conserved among flies to humans. Most TRP channels have well known functions in chemosensation, thermosensation, and mechanosensation. In addition to being sensing environmental changes, many TRP channels are also internal sensors that help maintain homeostasis. Recent improvements to analytical methods for genomics and metabolomics allow us to investigate these channels in both mutant animals and humans. In this review, we discuss three aspects of TRP channels, which are their role in metabolism, their functional characteristics, and their role in metabolic syndrome. First, we introduce each TRP channel superfamily and their particular roles in metabolism. Second, we provide evidence for which metabolites TRP channels affect, such as lipids or glucose. Third, we discuss correlations between TRP channels and obesity, diabetes, and mucolipidosis. The cellular metabolism of TRP channels gives us possible therapeutic approaches for an effective prophylaxis of metabolic syndromes.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.1062-1067
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• 2018

In this study, the research processed with a chemical sensor for measuring trace amount of heavy metal ions which is based on the requirements of the efficient sensing technology as recent equipment is applies molecular system in the chemical sensing section that can precisely recognizing selective target substance and transmit its data to physical signal as a result. In this research is concentrated on realize highly precise by utilizing SPR sensor application of recognition functional sensing membrane. Consequently, according to DTSQ-dye sensing membrane, the resonance angle from low-concentration to the highest concentration $10^{-4}M$ of $Ag^+$ ion is $2.17[^{\circ}]$ and this result indicating 4.3 times larger resonance angle changes compare to the other metal substance. Based on SQ-dye sensing membrane, the difference of resonance angle between low concentration and the highest concentration $10^{-4}M$ of $Cu^{2+}$ ion is $2.3[^{\circ}]$ and this outcome is indicating 4.5 times greater resonance angle change to the other metal substance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.407-407
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• 2014

Nanotechnology, especially vertically grown silicon nanowires, has gotten great attentions in biology due to characteristics of one dimensional nanostructure; controllable synthetic structure such as lengths, diameters, densities. Silicon nanowires are promising materials as nanoelectrodes due to their highly complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) - and bio-compatibility. Silicon nanowires are so intoxicated that are effective for bio molecular delivery and electrical stimulation. Vertical nanowires with integrated Au tips were fabricated for electrical intracellular interfacing with PC-12 cells. We have made synthesized two types of nanowire devices; one is multi-nanowires electrode for bio molecular sensing and electrical stimulation, and the other is single-nanowires electrode respectively. Here, we demonstrate that differentiation of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) treated PC-12 cells can be promoted depending on different magnitudes of electrical stimulation and density of Si NWs. It was fabricated by both bottom-up and top-down approaches using low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) with high vacuuming environment to electrically stimulate PC-12 cells. The effects of electrical stimulation with NGF on the morphological differentiation are observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and it induces neural outgrowth. Moreover, the cell cytosol can be dyed selectively depending on the degree of differentiation along with fluorescence microscopy measurement. Vertically grown silicon nanowires have further expected advantages in case of single nanowire fabrication, and will be able to expand its characteristics to diverse applications.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.510-518
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• 2021

Bacteriophages are considered excellent sensing elements for platforms detecting bacteria. However, their lytic cycle has restricted their efficacy. Here, we used the minor coat protein pIII domain (N1N2) of phage CTXφ to construct a novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor that could detect Vibrio cholerae. N1N2 harboring the domains required for phage adsorption and entry was obtained from Escherichia coli using recombinant protein expression and purification. SDS-PAGE revealed an approximate size of 30 kDa for N1N2. Dot blot and transmission electron microscopy analyses revealed that the protein bound to the host V. cholerae but not to non-host E. coli K-12 cells. Next, we used amine-coupling to develop a novel recombinant N1N2 (rN1N2)-functionalized SPR biosensor by immobilizing rN1N2 proteins on gold substrates and using SPR to monitor the binding kinetics of the proteins with target bacteria. We observed rapid detection of V. cholerae in the range of approximately 10³ to 10⁹ CFU/ml but not of E. coli at any tested concentration, thereby confirming that the biosensor exhibited differential recognition and binding. The results indicate that the novel biosensor can rapidly monitor a target pathogenic microorganism in the environment and is very useful for monitoring food safety and facilitating early disease prevention.