ABSTRACT
Optical, electrochemical, and piezoelectric-based sensor systems can be designed to detect specific analyte molecules in a solution. Critical to the development of smart biosensors is a solid understanding of immobilization methods and the fundamental properties of “intelligent” materials. This comprehensive chapter provides a detailed review of creating biosensors that detect biological macromolecules using different signal transduction mechanisms. In particular, the discussion focuses on the intelligent properties of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and the potential of DNA for creating novel biosensors. Sensing applications of protein–DNA interactions include organo-pesticide detection, metal ion detection, and “smart bandages.” Finally, the importance of informatics and machine learning in understanding biological macromolecules and impact on biosensor operation are introduced. Machine learning and data mining approaches are applied to the analysis of high-dimensional data from microarray biosensors, and supervised learning is used to study the effects of various compounds from the National Cancer Institute's testing program on cancer cells grown in tissue culture.
