biosensors.co.uk

Mr Biosensor, Professor Anthony (Tony) Turner’s has been involved with biosensors for more than 35 years. He has been involved with Cranfield University for a number of years and is now part-time innovation director at Cranfield University. He has recently in 2010 joined IFM-Linköping to build a new centre for Biosensors and Biolectronics.

Next year’s conference is to be held in Cancun, Mexico. A wonderful location to indulge in some great speakers from the world of biosensor. Speakers will present on a variety of topics including:

• Bioelectronics
• Commercial biosensors, manufacturing and markets
• DNA chips & nucleic acid sensors
• Enzyme-based biosensors
• Immunosensors
• Lab-on-a-chip
• Microfluidics
• Nanobiosensors, nanomaterials & nanoanalytical systems
• Natural & synthetic receptors
• Organism- and whole cell-based biosensors
• Printed biosensors and printed electronics
• Proteomics, single-cell analysis and electronic noses
• Signal transduction technology and biological fuel cells
• Theranostics & nanotheranostics

You can sign up and see more by following the link below.

http://www.biosensors-congress.elsevier.com/

A biosensor is a device that detects an “analyte”, by combining a biological element and a detector element.

The most common example is the blood glucose biosensor used by diabetics to measure their blood glucose concentration. In this example, an enzyme called glucose oxidase is used to break down the glucose in the blood, and an electrode is used to measure the concentration. The enzyme is the biological element, and the electrode is the detector element. There are a number of steps in between but we do not need to go into that much detail here.

The idea of biosensors is to keep the chemical reaction that occurs between the substance being analysed and the biological component of the device as simple as possible. If the reaction will occur regardless of independent variables such as temperature and acidity, it will be easier to analyse a substance without having to treat it first. Following our example of a blood glucose biosensor, it would not be particularly helpful to a person with diabetes if their sensor could not work accurately in cold temperatures, for example.

Some other applications of biosensors include the detection of toxic compounds in the air or in water, including the detection of airborne bacteria and detection of drug residues in food, for example, antibiotic residues in meat. A lot of research is taking place in this field, most of it aimed at medical applications such as the diagnosis of tuberculosis in cattle, and also at environmental applications, such as the detection of life in deep lakes in the Antarctic, which are one of the few unexplored areas left on our planet. For diabetic patients, research is underway to develop a biosensor capable of measuring blood glucose from the breath or skin, rather than the blood.