(198c) Development of Steroid Biosensors Using Corona Phase Molecular Recognition and Translation to Physiological Biologging

For decades, biologgers have been tagging animals with various types of sensors to study aspects of their behavior unable to be queries in controlled laboratory environments. To date, environmental and physiological chemical information remains an underutilized data source that offers tremendous potential to raise the level of insight gained from such studies. In particular, continuous measurements of in vivo steroid levels may elucidate numerous physiological processes underlying animal behavior, yielding more sophisticated insights previously impossible. In this work, we describe our progress in utilizing a template steroid strategy coupled with Corona Phase Molecular Recognition (CoPhMoRe) to detect cortisol and progesterone. Polymers incorporating a template steroid in the backbone were used to suspend single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), creating a steroid library that was then screened against an analyte library of physiologically significant steroid hormones. Constructs selective for progesterone and cortisol will be presented. Our current efforts to translate CoPhMoRe sensors for marine organism physiological biologging will also be presented. We show the feasibility of using inexpensive cameras to detect changes in analyte concentrations, as well as demonstrate fluorescence measurements in fish tissue samples.