Bioelectronics: Towards ionic circuitry

The creation of logic gates – the elementary building blocks of logic circuits - based on ion transistors is reported in a paper in Nature Communications this week. This development could have implications for a range of biochemical and biomedical applications.

Transistors based on ions, as opposed to electrons, offer the promise of integrating artificial signaling devices within biological systems. Developing ionic circuits based on such transistors requires a close control of the transport and delivery of ionic and biomolecular signals. Magnus Berggren and colleagues fabricate logic gates based on ion transistors, and show they can operate at physiological salt concentrations necessary to be compatible with biological systems.