Printed circuit board cultureware for analysis of colorectal carcinoma cells using impedance spectroscopy

In this paper we report on the fabrication and testing of an impedance biosensor which is fabricated on a printed circuit board. The sensor's interdigitated electrodes were designed using COMSOL Multiphysics™. To yield inexpensive, easily manufactured sensors, the devices were fabricated on a glass-reinforced epoxy laminate (FR4) printed circuit board (PCB). An eight-well chamber slide was glued on the PCB sensor to form the cultureware. To facilitate cell attachment to the electrodes, cell substrate was coated on the electrodes. Two different cell substrates gelatin and polyaniline were coated on different devices to evaluate the effectiveness of the cell substrate. The fabricated PCB sensor was tested using human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT116). The impedance measurements were recorded with cell culture medium (without cells) and with colorectal cancer cells in the culture medium over a frequency range from 100 Hz to 10 MHz. The impedance measurements were compared to the equivalent circuit model.