Browsing by Author "Skeen, Rodney S."

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    Evaluation of Neuron-Based Sensing with the Neurotransmitter Serotonin
    (Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 1990) Skeen, Rodney S.; Kisaalita, William S.; Van Wie, Bernard J.; Fung, Simon J.; Barnes, Charles D.
    Results are presented on the development of a novel biosensor which will use neurons or neuronal components as both the recognition elements and primary transducers for analyte quantitation. This concept is demonstrated and evaluated by exposing identified neurons from the visceral ganglia of the pond snail Limnea stagnalis to the model analyte serotonin. Experiments reveal a reversible, concentration-dependent increase in the rate of spontaneous action potential generation, over a concentration range of four orders of magnitude. Studies with the antagonist methysergide verify that this response is mediated through serotonin-sensitive receptors. Exposure of the neurons to serotonin causes the firing frequency to rapidly increase to a maximum and then slowly diminish to a sub-optimal level. It was found that the maximum frequency provides an indication of chemical concentration that is repeatable. Data are also presented which further advanced the field of neuronal biosensing by demonstrating both the effects of cell to cell variability on response reproducibility and the effects of the desensitizing response on the operation of a neuron-based sensor in both a continuous and discontinuous mode.
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    Initiating Cross Disciplinary Research : The Neuron-Based Chemical Sensor Project
    (Chemical Engineering Education, 1989) Kisaalita, William S.; Van Wie, Bernard J.; Skeen, Rodney S.; Davis, William C.; Barnes, Charles D.; Fung, Simon J.; Chun, Kukjin; Dogan, Numan S.
    CHEMICAL ENGINEERING is essential to the pro-cess of bringing new areas like biotechnology, electronic, and other advanced materials to commercial success. The success of this process depends on significant cooperation between chemical engineering and other disciplines. Although there is a large volume of literature on the subject of interdisciplinary and/or crossdisciplinary research [1-3], most of it concerns large projects (as defined in Table 1) and little has been written from a chemical engineering perspective. The rationale behind the levels of funding used in Table 1 is called for. Usually in the initial stages of a project, $30,000 to $70,000 for a single year is only sufficient to generate pilot data and perhaps to provide incentive for the formation of a cross-or an interdisciplinary team. A yearly budget of $70,000 to $150,000 for a period of three to five years provides enough for more than one graduate student to focus on specific aspects relating to the expertise of each co-investigator. Amounts above $150,000 can support large groups with more personnel per discipline involved as well as supporting inter-university research activities where extensive travel may be necessary. The purpose of this paper is to address the problems
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    Optimization of Glass Microelectrode Properties by Response Surface Methodology
    (Journal of neuroscience methods, 1991) Kisaalita, William S.; Skeen, Rodney S.; Van Wie, Bernard J.; Barnes, Charles D.; Fung, Simon J.
    Glass microelectrodes filled with electrolyte solutions are standard tools for electrophysiological studies. However, for any given application, there are limitations to the properties of the microelectrode, such as impedance and shank length, that can yield satisfactory results. The trial and error approach in pulling electrodes with the desired properties can be time consuming. The use of a response surface procedure which allows the experimenter to change more than one factor at a time and therefore determine the desired puller condition more efficiently is demonstrated. Also, design improvements for the World Precision Instrument, Model PUL-1, Microelectrode puller, used in this study are suggested.