Biosensors A Russian Perspective

Biosensors have captured the imagination of the world's scientific and commercial communities by combining interdisciplinary skills of biologists, physicists, chemists and engineers to provide innovative solutions to analytical problems. Biosensors are applicable to clinical diagnostics, food analysis, cell culture monitoring, environmental control and various military situations. Ever increasing demands for rapid and convenient analyses of a wide variety of materials in diverse locations has led to intense interest in the fusion of biology and electronics which mimics our principal concern: the effect of materials and environments on living systems. This series, "Advances in Biosensors", presents a compendium of research papers, in which authorities in the field of biosensors provide an up-to-date overview of their laboratory's contribution, summarizing the primary research as it has appeared, possibly scattered, in the journal and conference literature, and reflecting on their findings. The net result will be intense, yet highly readable accounts of the state of the art at this leading edge of analytical technology.

Biosensor technology has rapidly expanded into a wide variety of applications in the last few years. This book focuses on several aspects of neural behavior both in vitro and in vivo, and for the first time, the detection of populations of neurons is presented.

A biosensor is a detecting device that combines a transducer with a biologically sensitive and selective component. Biosensors can measure compounds present in the environment, chemical processes, food and human body at low cost if compared with traditional analytical techniques. This book covers a wide range of aspects and issues related to biosensor technology, bringing together researchers from 12 different countries. The book consists of 20 chapters written by 69 authors and divided in three sections: Biosensors Technology and Materials, Biosensors for Health and Biosensors for Environment and Biosecurity.

Although noninvasive, continuous monitoring of glucose concentration in blood and tissues is one of the most challenging areas in medicine, a wide range of optical techniques has recently been designed to help develop robust noninvasive methods for glucose sensing. For the first time in book form, the Handbook of Optical Sensing of Glucose in Biological Fluids and Tissues analyzes trends in noninvasive optical glucose sensing and discusses its impact on tissue optical properties. This handbook presents methods that improve the accuracy in glucose prediction based on infrared absorption spectroscopy, recent studies on the influence of acute hyperglycemia on cerebral blood flow, and the correlation between diabetes and the thermo-optical response of human skin. It examines skin glucose monitoring by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), fluorescence-based glucose biosensors, and a photonic crystal contact lens sensor. The contributors also explore problems of polarimetric glucose sensing in transparent and turbid tissues as well as offer a high-resolution optical technique for noninvasive, continuous, and accurate blood glucose monitoring and glucose diffusion measurement. Written by world-renowned experts in biomedical optics and biophotonics, this book gives a complete, state-of-the-art treatise on the design and applications of noninvasive optical methods and instruments for glucose sensing.

This book reviews the application of nanosensors in food and agriculture. Nanotechnology has the potential to become transformative technology that will impact almost all sectors. Tools like nanosensors, which detect specific molecular interactions, can be used for on-site, in-situ and online measurements of various parameters in clinical diagnostics, environmental and food monitoring, and quality control. Due to their unprecedented performance and sensitivity, nanobiosensors are gaining importance in precision farming. The book examines the use of nanobiosensors in the monitoring of food additives, toxins and mycotoxins, microbial contamination, food allergens, nutritional constituents, pesticides, environmental parameters, plant diseases and genetically modified organisms. It also discusses the role of biosensors in increasing crop productivity in sustainable agriculture, and nanosensor-based smart delivery systems to optimize the use of natural resources such as water, nutrients and agrochemicals in precision farming.

This book includes an international group of researchers who present the latest achievements in the field of enzyme, immune system, and microbial and nano-biosensors. It highlights the experimental evidence for formation of biological fuel cells (BFCs)-which has a dual purpose – as a device that produces electricity and the systems which produce it simultaneously cleaning up the environment from polluting organic compounds. Considering the work in the field of macro, micro and nano-biosensors, considerable attention is paid to the use of nanomaterials for the modification of working electrodes. Nanomaterials in some cases can significantly improve the parameters of analytical systems. Readers will be interested in the projection of the presented theoretical and experimental materials in the field of practical application of modern analytical developments. The presented results in many cases imply the possibility of using the created models of macro, micro and nano-biosensors, and biofuel elements in the field of health, and protection/restoration of the environment. It includes information about all existing types of transducers of signals in biosensors – electrochemical, optical and quantum-optics, thermoelectric, data of atomic force microscopy, piezoelectric, and more. On the basis of these principles, descriptions are given about the functioning of macro, micro and nano- biosensors for the detection of compounds used in medicine, detection of compounds that clog the environment, and thus affect human health, for compounds that are potentially the basis for the production of drugs, for the selection of compounds that have medicinal activity, for immunodetection, and to assess the quality of food. These questions form the basis of research carried out in the field of biosensors in the world. Since the described models of biosensors have high sensitivity, high measurement speed and selectivity, the described results attract the attention of both the ordinary reader and business class specialists who create and implement analytical technologies. This book is very useful for researchers in life sciences, chemical sciences, physics, and engineering. In addition, it will be useful for the persons working in industry. Advanced technologies specialists will be attracted by the novelty of the proposed solutions and their relevance and ease of implementation. Since the studies contain sections describing the parameters of different biosensors, BFCs, they are easily navigated into assessing the effectiveness of the practical use of the proposed device. The relevant sections indicate such characteristics as detection ranges, life span, type of biological material used, the method of formation of the bio-receptor part. These parameters are of interest to both developers of new models of biosensors and BFC, and their manufacturers.

Providing the population of the Earth with safe drinking water is one of the biggest challenges of modern society. In recognition of this problem the United Nations Organization and UNESCO declared 2003 to be the International Year of Freshwater. On November 19-22, 2003, the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) on “Modern Tools and Methods of Water Treatment for Improving Living Standards” took place in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. Thirty-one participants from 15 countries including Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, UK, Ukraine, USA, and Uzbekistan attended the meeting. They discussed the scientific concepts and practical means for the solution of the complex social, economic and ecological problems associated with water purification, consumption, conservation, and protection. They also established a network of scientists and specialists to foster further collaboration and the exchange of ideas. The location of the ARW was chosen quite deliberately. The city of Dnepropetrovsk is located on the banks of the Dnieper River and it has a population of about 1. 3 million people. As it is one of the largest industrial centers, it shares all the environmental problems, which are found in the modern Ukraine. In 2001, one in seven of the water samples taken from Ukrainian industrial and drinking water supply systems did not meet sanitary-hygienic standards, and one in twelve did not meet microbiological standards.