Biosensors
By Dr Deepak Rajpurohit
Introduction
A biosensor is an analytical device, used for the detection
of a chemical substance, that combines a biological
component with a physicochemical detector. The sensitive
biological element, e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles,
cell receptors, enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, etc., is a
biologically derived material or biomimetic component
that interacts with, binds with, or recognizes the analyte
under study. The biologically sensitive elements can also
be created by biological engineering.
The sensitive biological element, e.g. tissue,
microorganisms, organelles, cell receptors, enzymes,
antibodies, nucleic acids, etc., is a biologically derived
material or biomimetic component that interacts with,
binds with, or recognizes the analyte under study. The
biologically sensitive elements can also be created by
biological engineering
The transducer or the detector element, which
transforms one signal into another one, works in a
physicochemical way: optical, piezoelectric,
electrochemical, electrochemiluminescence etc.,
resulting from the interaction of the analyte with the
biological element, to easily measure and quantify.
The biosensor reader device connects with the
associated electronics or signal processors that are
primarily responsible for the display of the results in a
user-friendly way.
This sometimes accounts for the most expensive
part of the sensor device, however it is possible to
generate a user friendly display that includes
transducer and sensitive element (holographic
sensor). The readers are usually custom-designed
and manufactured to suit the different working
principles of biosensors.
Applications
There are many potential applications of biosensors of
various types. The main requirements for a biosensor
approach to be valuable in terms of research and
commercial applications are the identification of a target
molecule, availability of a suitable biological recognition
element, and the potential for disposable portable
detection systems to be preferred to sensitive
laboratory-based techniques in some situations.wth
promoters, particularly meat and honey, drug discovery
and evaluation of biological activity of new compounds,
protein engineering in biosensors, and detection of toxic
metabolites such as mycotoxins.
Some examples are glucose monitoring in diabetes patients,
other medical health related targets, environmental
applications e.g. the detection of pesticides and river water
contaminants such as heavy metal ions,remote sensing of
airborne bacteria e.g. in counter-bioterrorist activities,
remote sensing of water quality in coastal waters by
describing online different aspects of clam ethology
(biological rhythms, growth rates, spawning or death
records) in groups of abandoned bivalves around the
world,detection of pathogens.
A common example of a commercial biosensor is the
blood glucose biosensor, which uses the enzyme
glucose oxidase to break blood glucose down. In
doing so it first oxidizes glucose and uses two
electrons to reduce the FAD (a component of the
enzyme) to FADH2. This in turn is oxidized by the
electrode in a number of steps. The resulting current
is a measure of the concentration of glucose. In this
case, the electrode is the transducer and the enzyme
is the biologically active component.
Food analysis
There are several applications of biosensors in food analysis.
In the food industry, optics coated with antibodies are
commonly used to detect pathogens and food toxins.
Commonly, the light system in these biosensors is
fluorescence, since this type of optical measurement can
greatly amplify the signal.
A range of immuno- and ligand-binding assays for the
detection and measurement of small molecules such as
water-soluble vitamins and chemical contaminants (drug
residues) such as sulfonamides and Beta-agonists have been
developed for use on SPR based sensor systems, often
adapted from existing ELISA or other immunological assay.
These are in widespread use across the food industry
Microbial biosensors
Using biological engineering researchers have
created many microbial biosensors. An example is
the arsenic biosensor. To detect arsenic they use the
Ars operon.Using bacteria, researchers can detect
pollutants in samples.
DNA biosensors
In the future, DNA will find use as a versatile
material from which scientists can craft biosensors.
[citation needed] DNA biosensors can theoretically
be used for medical diagnostics, forensic science,
agriculture, or even environmental clean-up
efforts. No external monitoring is needed for DNA-
based sensing devices.
This is a significant advantage. DNA biosensors are
complicated mini-machines—consisting of sensing
elements, micro lasers, and a signal generator. At the heart
of DNA biosensor function is the fact that two strands of
DNA stick to each other by virtue of chemical attractive
forces. On such a sensor, only an exact fit—that is, two
strands that match up at every nucleotide position—gives
rise to a fluorescent signal (a glow) that is then transmitted
to a signal generator.
