Photo-induced charge movement (PICM) is a phenomena being utilized in electrodes to develop a novel aqueous sensor technology. These are a type of photo-electric sensor that rely on the recognition between molecules coating the sensor surface with target biological analytes delivered in aqueous solutions. Light induced molecular events that displace charge on the sensors as a result of receptor/analyte interaction are measured as voltage vs time. These interfacial photovoltage signals are digitized using a Tektronix 2014 Oscilloscope interfaced with a computer running Lab View 8.5. PICM sensors are currently employed for the detection of virus and bacteria. Successful detection of Sindbis virus has been achieved and work with E. coli and Porcine parvovirus has yielded positive preliminary results. We plan to begin working with sensor arrays to improve sensor specificity.

Equipment used in PICM chemical and microbe research includes a FEI Quanta 200 Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope with EDAX, SRS Quartz Crystal Microbalance 200, Perkin Elmer UV-vis spectrophotometer, custom made PICM sensor setups and a variety of Leica light microscopes. Work on PICM microbe sensors is conducted in a state of the art biological safety level 2 lab under the supervision of Dr. Doria F. Bowers and Jay S. Huebner.