Proteotronics: Electronic devices based on proteins

摘要

The convergent interests of different scientific disciplines, frombiochemistry to electronics, toward the investigation of protein electricalproperties, has promoted the development of a novel bailiwick, the so calledproteotronics. The main aim of proteotronics is to propose and achieveinnovative electronic devices, based on the selective action of specificproteins. This paper gives a sketch of the fields of applications ofproteotronics, by using as significant example the detection of a specificodorant molecule carried out by an olfactory receptor. The experiment isbriefly reviewed and its theoretical interpretation given. Further experimentsare envisioned and expected results discussed in the perspective of anexperimental validation.