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[Research] Colony isolation of odorant receptor–expressing insect sensor cells in hollow hydrogel microparticles for enhanced biohybrid sensor sensitivity

A joint research group led by Project Researcher Kazuki Nishimoto and Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo, together with Researcher Hisatoshi Mimura of the Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (KISTEC) and Professor Dino Di Carlo of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA; also Specially Appointed Professor, EXPERT-GRI Promotion Office, the University of Tokyo), has developed a technique for culturing and selecting insect-derived sensor cells that detect odor molecules. Using microparticles, the technique grows these cells from single cells or a small number of cells, which is normally difficult, and selects cell lines that respond strongly to odors.

The selected sensor cells detected a potential cancer-related compound added to human urine with approximately 2.4 times higher sensitivity than the original cells. This culture and selection method could also be applied to other types of cells that are difficult to grow from single cells, and is expected to facilitate their cultivation and study.

For further details, please refer to the KISTEC website.

Schematic of improving the sensitivity of an insect cell-based biohybrid sensor by culturing and selecting sensor cells in microparticles

Publication Information

Journal：Biosensors and Bioelectronics
Title of paper：Colony isolation of odorant receptor–expressing insect sensor cells in hollow hydrogel microparticles for enhanced biohybrid sensor sensitivity
Authors：K. Nishimoto, H. Mimura, D. Di Carlo, and S. Takeuchi
DOI:10.1016/j.bios.2026.119354
URL:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bios.2026.119354

(This English article was translated with the assistance of AI.)