Biosensors: sense and sensibility

Abstract

This review is based on the Theophilus Redwood Medal and Award lectures, delivered to Royal Society of Chemistry meetings in the UK and Ireland in 2012, and presents a personal overview of the field of biosensors. The biosensors industry is now worth billions of United States dollars, the topic attracts the attention of national initiatives across the world and tens of thousands of papers have been published in the area. This plethora of information is condensed into a concise account of the key achievements to date. The reasons for success are examined, some of the more exciting emerging technologies are highlighted and the author speculates on the importance of biosensors as a ubiquitous technology of the future for health and the maintenance of wellbeing.

Cholesterol Self-Powered Biosensor

“…The electrical simplicity (minimal signal processing) of this approach could be extremely useful in a fully-integrated analytical device for personal cholesterol monitoring exploiting silicon-free printed electronics 20 . …”

“…(i) these analytical devices have a simple design of only two electrodes; (ii) biosensors with this configuration are powered by biological fluids opening the possibility for fabrication of autonomous sensing devices and power sources; and (iii) the possible development of inexpensive screening devices based on printed electronics 20 . Fuel-cell based biosensors first appeared in the literature in the 1980's 21,22 .…”

An electrochemical sensor device for measuring blood ammonia at the point of care

“…This is particularly critical in many disorders such as hyperammonaemia of the new-born, inborn errors of metabolism including urea cycle defects, organic acidaemias, hyperinsulinism/hyperammonaemia and liver disease [2]. There has been an increase in research efforts around electrochemical sensors for healthcare use due to increases in population and lifespan along with the need to reduce ever-increasing healthcare costs [3]. Electrochemical sensors have demonstrated the capability of addressing point of care (POC) testing requirements by providing accurate and rapid measurement in complex matrices such as blood.…”

H2‐Fueled ATP Synthesis on an Electrode: Mimicking Cellular Respiration

“…Great progress in immobilizing enzymes has allowed the exploitation of their substrate specificity to catalyze chemical reactions for industrial applications5 and to develop biosensors with great selectivity and capacity to detect analytes 6. However, to mimic and utilize the vectorial ion movement required for the generation of electrochemical gradients in living cells, both spatial control over the assembly of the participating proteins,7 and the presence and maintenance of two independent ion‐impermeable compartments are required 8.…”