Early Detection of Volatile Tumor Biomarkers Using Chemoresistive Sensors and MEMS-Based Preconcentration: A Study on K562 Cell Line

The analysis of volatile organic compounds emitted by cell cultures provides a non-invasive method for monitoring metabolic and oxidative stress states. However, detection is challenged by low volatile organic compound concentrations and high sample humidity. This study introduces an integrated system combining a MEMS-based pre-concentrator with an array of n-type Metal-Oxide chemiresistive gas sensors to analyze emissions from the K562 leukemia cell line. The main goal is to distinguish cellular volatile organic compound signals from those of the culture medium. To achieve this, the pre-concentrator is used with different temperature-programmed desorption protocols to enhance signal intensity and improve discrimination performance.