Olfactory receptor-based smell nanobiosensors: An overview of theoretical and experimental results

Mammalian olfactory system is the archetype of smell sensor devices. Its complexity resides both in the odorant mechanism of capture by the single olfactory receptor (OR) and in the space organization and codification of the information. The result is a unique profile for each odorant. Our aim is to partially mimick this system, in order to produce a biosensor on nanometric scale. In this paper, we present a microscopic theoretical framework in which the experimental results should be embedded. It consists of the description of the protein at the level of the amino-acid structure in terms of an impedance network able to simulate the electrical characteristics associated with the protein topology.