Characterization of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Using a Pyroelectric Sensor

Characterization of cultured cells is extremely important for reproducible in vitro experiments. More recently, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were intensively investigated as useful tool for precision medicine and disease modelling. In this work, a thermoelectric sensor was designed and fabricated to assess the thermal conductivity of cultured iPSCs. It exploits the pyroelectric effect of a thin film of Polyvinylidene-fluoride (PVDF) induced by an infrared (IR) source. Experimental validation was conducted on iPSCs derived from two subjects, one carries a loss-of-function mutation in SCN1A gene, codifying for the neuronal voltage gated sodium channel NaV1.1, and a healthy control. Our results highlight that pathological variant of NaV1.1 channel can lead to changes in the thermal conductivity of the cell.