Biosensors Nanotechnology

Preface

Biosensors and biosensing technologies have grown from a tiny, niche activity in the 1980s into a major, worldwide industry. Nanomaterials have played key roles in this development, not only in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, but also in sectors such as telecommunications, paper and textiles. Biological sensing is a fundamental tool for understanding living systems, but also finds practical application in medicine, drug discovery, process control, food safety, environmental monitoring, defense and personal security. Moreover, a deeper understanding of the bio/electronic interface leads us towards new horizons in areas such as bionics, power generation and computing. Advances in telecommunications, expert systems and distributed diagnostics prompt us to question the current ways we deliver healthcare, while robust industrial sensors enable new paradigms in R&D and production.

Personalization of everything from medicine to environmental control gives new impetus to consumer choice and ownership of information, and will inevitably generate new payment structures and business models. Wearable, mobile and integrated sensors are becoming commonplace, but most current products have taken the easy path of incorporating physical sensors for parameters such as temperature, pressure, orientation or position. There is a glaring absence of suitably robust and convenient sensors for body chemistries and therein lies the real opportunities for progress. This book examines some of the ...