Whole cell biosensors

Abstract

This paper reviews the field of biosensors in which the biological component consists of living cells. One of the most important reasons for using living cells is to obtain functional information, i.e. information about the effect of a stimulus on a living system. In many cases, functional rather than analytical information is ultimately desired. Whole-cell biosensors provide the opportunity to elicit such information, for applications such as pharmacology, cell biology, toxicology, and environmental measurements. One particularly important application is drug discovery, where the binding assays that are commonly used to provide high throughput need to be complemented with a functional assay. A micromachined silicon chip that is capable of providing a high throughput functional assay based on extracellular acidification is described.