ABSTRACT
The opportunities for commercializing biosensors in personal healthcare, patient monitoring, food safety, biometrics, and public security (i.e., threat detection) are immense. The basic principles of electrochemical biosensors and bioelectronic transducers are discussed in this introductory chapter. These biosensors are analytical devices that integrate a biomolecular receptor with an artificial transducer that generates a measureable signal proportional to a specific group of analytes. The biological elements incorporated in these types of sensors are enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, proteins, bacteriophages, and neuronal tissue. The bioreceptor molecules and catalysts (e.g., enzymes) provide effective recognition and binding capabilities for highly selective and specific biopolymer complexes, including antigen–antibody, hormone-receptor, and duplex DNA complexes. Although there are different types of sensors, the focus of the discussion is on the design and operating principles of a label-free impedance biosensor. Recent advances in materials engineering and nontraditional manufacturing processes have also enabled new bioelectronics sensors and sensing arrays to be developed that can be attached directly to the natural organic structure of biological tissue and, if necessary, biodegrade harmlessly into the environment after the device's usefulness has ceased. In this regard, stretchable and biodegradable electronic sensors and circuits are introduced and their advantages for biomedical applications are briefly discussed.
