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Organic electronics

Polymers manipulate cells

Nature Materials volume 6, pages 626–627 (2007)Cite this article

An emerging topic of research into conducting polymers revolves around their integration with living tissue. Using an organic electronic ion pump enables cell responses to be controlled, providing an intriguing avenue to further this area.

Electronically conducting polymers have shown their utility in a variety of organic device applications such as thin-film transistors, light-emitting diodes and photovoltaics1. It is less widely known, however, that there are also applications enabled by their ability to interface with living systems, such as for microfabricated neural electrodes intended for long-term communications with cerebral cortex2. Most of the research into conducting polymers in electronic devices is enabled by the facile transport of electrons and holes along their conjugated molecular backbones, but devices that operate by transporting ions have been used to make addressable actuators3. On page 673 of this issue, Magnus Berggren and colleagues demonstrate that controlling the transport of ions using conjugated polymer devices can also be used to control signalling in cells4. By manipulating the levels of ions in reservoirs using an organic electronic ion pump, the researchers elicit specific biological responses in neuronal cells attached to the reservoir surfaces, and suggest that the method could be used as a diagnostic tool to look at biological ion transport.

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Figure 1: Schematic view of the organic electronic ion pump.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. David C. Martin is in the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, 2644 CSE Building, 2260 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2121, USA. milty@umich.edu,

    David C. Martin

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  1. David C. Martin
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Martin, D. Polymers manipulate cells. Nature Mater 6, 626–627 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1992

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1992

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