Enzyme biosensors history

Biosensors are a class of sensors designed from the combination of three basic components. The first is a biological component, possessing the specificity and efficiency resulting from its evolutionary history. It represents the molecular recognition or sensing element and may be enzyme or protein, nucleic acid, or living cell. The second component is some molecular method... 

The modification of electrodes with enzymes and other biological macromolecules was well underway before 1978, and a detailed history of this field is beyond the scope of the present paper. A brief discussion of biological systems is given, however, to place them in context with other modification layers. A recent review by Frew and Hill (121) discusses past and future strategies for design of electrochemical biosensors. Topics discussed were enzyme electrodes, electron transfer mediators, conducting salts, electrochemical immunoassay, enzyme labels, and cell-based biosensors. In general, the bioactive molecule or cell is immobilized in proximity to an electrochemical transducer and exposed to the analyte solution for real-time analysis. 

Enzymatic biosensors can be defined as an analytical device having an enzyme as a bioreceptor integrated or intimately associated with the physical transducer to produce a discrete or continuous digital electronic/optical signal that is proportional to the concentration of analyte present in the sample. This chapter describes the enzyme-based electrochemical biosensors for the measurement of clinically important biomatkers, beginning with a history of biosensors. 

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