Chapter 31 - Development of biosensors for application in industrial biotechnology

Abstract

Biosensors have been implemented in multiple industries among which the most popular usage is done by the fermentation industry in detecting precise concentrations of glucose in saccharification method; the food industry for quality control and to distinguish between the artificial and natural; medicine industry for the detection of heart disease, early-stage human interleukin 10, human papillomavirus, etc. The necessary application of biosensors in biomedicine, discovery of new drugs, nutritional safety standards, environmental observance, and security has gained colossal momentum, which has aided in building precise and powerful analytical tools. Biosensors can be developed using a wide array of techniques. Coupling them with biomolecules with high affinity will provide precise as well as sensitive sensing of a large variety of solutes. The most integral approach is to design multifaceted biosensors that provide diverse usage potential. Biosensors such as polymers, microbes to nanomaterials have more comprehensive applications. Biosensors are used to encapsulate biological signals and convert them into observable electrical signals. They are created by unifying biological substances like proteins/enzymes, RNA and DNA with electrochemical transducers for the observation and detection of biological analytes. In contrast to classical methods, the application of peptide arrays, nucleotides or aptamers, molecule imprinted polymers, and affibodies prove to help develop new and effective biosensors.