Biosensors future developments

Future development of affinity biosensors based on spectroscopy of guided waves will be driven by the needs of the consumer. These biosensor technologies hold potential to benefit important fields including pharmaceutical research, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety, and security. Applications in these areas will challenge research and development in the field. 

In conclusion, more than 40 years after the first electrode with an immo-bilized-enzyme membrane was produced, future developments in biosensor design will inevitably focus upon the technology of new materials, especially the new copolymers that promise to solve the biocompatibility problem and offer the prospect of more widespread use of biosensors in clinical (and environmental) monitoring [80]. 

In view of the future development of sensors driven by increasing demand for accuracy and precision, and by the opening of new fields close to the biological area (which is oriented toward nano-biosensor fabrication), it appears even more important to properly use the most relevant sensor keywords, such as response curve, sensitivity, noise, drift, resolution, and selectivity. 

DNA biosensors are also of great interest for the future development of microelectronic sensors for the detection of biological compounds and antigens. DNA would act as a promoter between the electrode and the biological molecule under study. Recently, some electrochemical research has been done in this direction with the aim of studying the interaction of DNA immobilized on the electrode surface with substances in solution. 

Application of the miniaturized biosensors for metabolite estimation in whole blood is another important concept for future development. The improvement in sensitivity, linear range and response time was achieved by miniaturization of the sensors and has been proven in the case of whole-blood glucose, urea and lactate. A useful feature of miniaturization is that the smaller the flow channel, the smaller are the dispersion and dilution effects, favouring whole blood measurement with minimum error. In the case of clinical estimations, the results of the measurement on miniaturized thermal biosensor are more reliable. 

In this chapter, the role of electrochemical and magnetic biosensors towards development of portable, compact and inexpensive biochip devices has been demonstrated. Direct measurement of electrochemical signals, such as ferrocene molecule, is a preferred approach to simplify the process towards miniaturized biochip devices. Furthermore, the use of magnetic probes promises to increase the sensitivity. Future research may be in the direction of developing new probes, e.g. nanomaterials for differing bio-applications. 

Since hydrogen peroxide is the product of reactions catalysed by a huge number of oxidase enzymes and is essential in food, pharmaceutical, and envitonmental analysis, its detection was and remains a necessity. Many attempts have been made in order to develop a biosensor that would be sensitive, stable, inexpensive and easy to handle. The most popular and efficient of them are amperometric enzyme biosensors, which utihsed different types of mediators and enzymes, mosdy peroxidase and catalase. Unfortunately many of the sensors developed do not mea the requirements for a practical device, which has a balance of technological charaaeristics (sensitivity, reliability, stability) and commercial adaptability (easy of mass production and low price). Thus a window of opportunity still remains open for future development. We hope that the present work will inspire other researches for further advances in the area of biosensors, in particular sensors for detection of such an important analyte as hydrogen peroxide. 

The objective of this review has been to show how supramolecular chemistry has made, and is continuing to make, an important contribution to the area of electrochemical sensing. From an applications point of view, future developments will continue to be directed toward recognition and read out at a surface, so that robust voltammetric sensors that are viable alternatives to other sensors (e.g., biosensors) can be produced. However, fundamental studies are required to further our understanding of how to maximize substrate selectivity, while maintaining an effective electrochemical response to... 

Rodriguez-Mozaz S, Marco M-P, Lopez de Alda MJ, Barcelo D (2004) Biosensors for environmental applications future development trends. Pure Appl Chem 76 723-752... 

Trends for future development of OPC sensors can be summarized as improvement of sensor performances (decrease of detection limit and assay time) simplification of assay procedure development of disposable sensing elements and development of inexpensive assays. This chapter summarizes our experience in developing a biosensor assay for OPCs based on the unique potentiometric principle and formatted for a disposable sensor technology. 

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