Miniaturized Dopamine Sensor for Midbrain Organoids

Human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived organoids are attractive <i>in vitro</i> models with superior resemblance to human organs and tissue and serve as an excellent platform for low-cost, high throughput drug screening. For example, brain organoids can be used to screen drugs for many brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. However, there is yet a suitable sensor platform that is capable of continuously monitoring various states of these organoids. In this work, we present a new transparent electrochemical dopamine (DA) sensor developed for monitoring the state of 3D midbrain organoids. Since DA plays an essential role in the cardiovascular and central nervous systems, and imbalances in DA can cause various disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, addiction, and schizophrenia, it is important to be able to monitor the concentration of DA secreted from the midbrain organoids. Various dopamine detection methods such as electroluminescence method, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and colorimetric method have been developed. However, systems for these methods are expensive, bulky, and time-consuming. Our proposed sensor is low-cost, miniature in size, and compatible with conventional microwell arrays.