Receptor based chemical sensing

This mini-review describes our recent approach of mimicking transmembrane and intracellular signalings displayed by various receptors in biomembranes for the development of new sensing membranes. Several important modes of receptor signaling have been utilized exploiting bio and synthetic receptors; (i) Ca2+ signaling by calmodulin, (ii) active transport of target and relevant compounds displayed by Na+/D-glucose cotransporter and Na+,K(+)-ATPase, (iii) membrane permeability changes induced by glutamate receptor ion channel proteins and (iv) membrane potential changes induced by synthetic receptors. The newly designed sensing systems are demonstrated and discussed in terms of their novel mode of signal transduction, sensitivity and selectivity.