ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the nanotechnology upon which nano sensors capabilities are based. Enzymes are potentially a good basis for making nanosensors extremely selective and sensitive as they react with substrates without being consumed themselves. Electrochemical nanosensors detect and analyze proteins, viruses, and cell membranes by measuring minute changes in potential or impedance, taking advantage of the sampling geometries and high surface area electrodes that can be fabricated with nanotechnology. Nanosensors and nanoactuators can be synthesized by the self-assembly of macromolecules. Fiber optics provides a very useful means of extending individual sensor probes and fabricating addressable arrays of nanosensors. The technologies for building these mobile monitoring capabilities already exist. It is a matter of economics and implementation for mobile medical monitoring to come into widespread use. The growing capabilities for miniaturization of every kind of chemical and physical measurement and manipulation have created enormous opportunities for exploring the chemical basis of life and expanding monitoring and diagnosis of health and disease.
