Recent Advances in Biosensor Technology

A biosensor is a device that detects the presence of analytes with its biological receptor entity, having unique specificities corresponding to their analytes. Most of these analytes are usually physical in nature, such as DNA, proteins, antibodies, and antigens, but they may also be simple compounds, including glucose, H2O2, toxins, and so on. Biosensors’ significance rises in providing real-time quantitative and qualitative information on analyte composition. The sensing mechanism involves the transduction of target binding interactions into optical, electrochemical signals, etc ., which can be amplified and detected.

Nanomaterials (NMs) have shown significant potential in biological sensing—these allow close interactions with target biomolecules due to their extremely small size and suitable surface modifications. Nanomaterials appear to be potential possibilities because of their capacity to immobilize a greater number of bioreceptor units in confined devices and even act as a transduction element, allowing for enhanced sensitivity and reduced detection limits down to specific molecules. Nanomaterials have been widely used for in vitro detection of disease-related molecular biomarkers and imaging, contrasts to map out the distribution of biomarkers in vivo. This chapter summarizes nanomaterials such as gold nanoparticles, quantum dots, polymeric nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, nanodiamonds, and graphene nanostructured materials that are currently being researched or utilized as biosensors.

Recently, carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNM) have been widely used for chemical and biosensing applications due to their outstanding physicochemical properties, such as mechanical, thermal, optical, electrical and structural diversity. Such materials include carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, graphene quantum dots and fullerene. As a consequence of inimitable features, these give superior strength, electrical conductivity, and flexibility toward numerous chemical and biological objects, which is valuable for chemical sensing and biosensing purposes. However, the specific intrinsic property makes graphene and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) most attractive among the various allotropes of carbon. Since the environmental contaminants in ppm level affect the people, therefore the use of CBNM for environmental sensing provides an accessible cache of data for modelling, which makes it easy to monitor environmental challenges. Thus, the biological, chemical, thermal, stress, optical, strain and flow sensors deliver a larger surface area, excellent electrical conductivity with chemical constancy, as well as mechanical difficulty with straightforward functionalization pathways of CNTs to improve old-style carbon electrode sensor platforms. Therefore, in this chapter, the CBNM for sensing purposes are focused in detail on their mechanism.

Carbon-based materials (CBMs) like graphene, hybrid graphene compounds (HCOGs), graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs), graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and graphene quantum dots (GQDs), as well as their derivatives like graphane, graphone, graphyne, graphdiyne, and fluorographene, are the direct descendants of graphene-based nanomaterials (GBNs). GBNs are graphene derivatives with single and multilayered graphene products. Their doped versions have marked remarkable significance over the past decade in scientific fields for applications due to their physical as well as their chemical properties. Graphene has emerged as a promising application for sensing, gas separation, water purification, biotechnology, disease diagnosis, bioengineering, and biomedicine. Graphene nanomaterials also play an important role in surface engineering (bioconjugation), improving their performance in vitro/in vivo stability and elevating the functionality of graphene-based nanomaterials, which can enable single/multimodality image optical imaging, positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and therapy photothermal therapy, photodynamic therapy, and drug/ gene delivery in cancer. Graphene nanoparticles have the natural fluorescence properties of graphene, which helps to bioimage cancer cells. They are perspective drug carriers appropriate for their target selectivity, easy chemosensitization, functionalization, and excellent drug-loading capacity. Iron-based graphene composites are with other companionable materials of exploration to make novel hybrid complexes with preferred uniqueness for biointerfacing.

To analyze the physio-chemical measures of the cellular environment and display them in digital units, transducing methods are applied in biosensors. The labelfree biosensors employ biophysical characteristics such as spectroscopic methods, crystallization, and Surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) to determine the availability or concentration of substances. SPR is a method to elucidate interaction among biomolecules exhibiting affinity binding, structural changes, or alteration in pathological conditions. SPR methods are now employed in conjunction with a variety of transducer topologies, including optical fibers, nanoparticle-based SPR, immobilized or localized SPR (LSPR), long-range SPR, image SPR, immune-assay-based SPR, and phase sensing SPR biosensors' versatile configuration allows for the early detection of several illnesses, such as COVID-19, dengue, non-invasive cancer, biomarker-based fetuses identification, therapeutic antibody characterization, drug monitoring, etc. SPR system is leading in diagnostics and therapeutics with various advantages, such as their portable size, cost-effectiveness, quick result, and easy-to-handle method, but at extension, this technique needs development to ensure high sensitivity, averting background effect and evolution of label-free direct detector to quantify real sample. This chapter reviews the model’s instrumentation and bioassay of clinical samples from SPR and its associated biosensor.

“Caution is the parent of Safety”. Early-stage diagnosis of Cancer can provide better medicinal therapeutic responses. Currently, a majority of cancer is diagnosed after having metastasized throughout the body. This led to the urgent requirement for potent and precise cancer detection methods for clinical diagnosis. Over the last several decades, the majority of researchers have concentrated their efforts on developing a potential rapid detection technique based on Biosensor technology for a variety of frightening human health-related disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and others. Significant advances were made in a wide range of fields attributed to the designed techniques having enhanced sensitivity, specificity, and repeatability. The development of diagnostic treatments in medicine was aided by noteworthy advancements in other scientific fields, including genetics, chemistry, micro-electrical engineering, and computational biology. As a result, efficient, accurate, rapid, and steady sensing platforms have been successfully developed for specific and ultrasensitive biomarker-based disease diagnostics. Biosensors are analytical devices designed to detect biological analytes by converting biological entities’ responses (DNA, RNA, Protein) into potent electrical signals. The biosensor device combines a biological component with a physiochemical detector for sensing an analyte (biological samples). The discovery of the Biosensor boosted the potential clinical diagnosis of cancer at a large scale. Biosensors can be designed to detect emerging cancer biomarkers and determine drug efficacy at various target sites. Biosensor technology has the potential to be used as a diagnostic tool for accurate and impressive cancer cell imaging, tracking cancer cell angiogenesis and metastasis, and evaluating the efficacy of treatment for the disease. This chapter will provide a quick overview of the challenges facing the early diagnosis of cancer, get through the depth of how biosensor technology may be used as a reliable diagnostic tool, and highlight potential uses for biosensor technology in the future.

Nanotechnology has a profound influence on environmental research, infrastructure, energy, food standards, information technology, and medicine. In biomedicine, nanotechnology primarily aims to provide solutions for preventive care, diagnosis, and therapy. Biosensors have significantly revolutionized the medical sector by offering on-site diagnostic capabilities. Since 1962, the combination of biosensors with nanotechnology has made a significant contribution to therapeutics and tissue engineering. Biosensors are diagnostic devices that monitor biochemical interactions and translate them into measurable electrical, optical, or mechanical signals. The tissue-engineered technology has gained popularity in the postmodern era to confront the shortcomings of biomedical applications, graft rejection, challenges in the recuperation of functional tissue, and specificities in the tissue regeneration site. The multitude of techniques for evaluating cell counts, growth, metabolic activity, and viability across the scaffolding of regenerated organs is reportedly labor-intensive and time-consuming. Biosensors have been rapidly advancing and influencing the field of tissue engineering in the last several decades. Recent developments in nanomedicine and biomaterial science have enabled them to overcome long-standing challenges. Biosensors used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM), unlike the other biological systems, must comply with the requirements mentioned above: (i) biocompatible, causing no or little response to foreign materials; (ii) non-invasive while probing the whole three-dimensional structure for targeted biomarkers; and (iii) should offer long-term monitoring (days to weeks). This chapter offers a comprehensive set of biosensors as well as their implementations in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). This chapter reviews current breakthroughs in nanobiosensors, their implementations in tissue engineering, and their promise for diagnostic purposes.

A biosensor is a device that converts a biological response into a detectable electrical signal. In recent years, biosensors have gained significant interest due to a plethora of applications in the field of disease diagnosis, detection of various environmental pollutants, food quality analysis, and pharmaceutical drug research. Among various types of biosensors, (such as enzyme-based, immunosensors, DNA biosensors, thermal and piezoelectric biosensors) DNA biosensors are being widely employed because of superior biocompatibility, thermal stability and alternative functionalization. DNA biosensors introduced in recent years include an aptamer-based sensor, molecular beacon-based biosensors, fluorescence-based sensors, hybridizationbased sensors and electrochemical-based DNA biosensors. This chapter highlights the fundamental knowledge and recent advances in the field of DNA-based biosensors. This chapter also focuses on the significance and wide application of DNAbased biosensors in the diverse areas of biotechnology and allied fields.

Biomedical diagnostic research is becoming increasingly important in the modern medical profession. Infectious disease inspection, initial detection, chronic disease treatment, clinical services and well-being hunt down are the various applications of biosensors. Advanced biosensor technology permits the identification of the disease and the examination of the patient’s responses to medication. Sensor technology is crucial for a broad range of low-cost and practicable developed medical appliances. Biosensors offer many possibilities because they are unambiguous, ascendable and capable of synthesizing procedures. Cardiovascular disease(CVD) is now recognized as the leading cause of death. It is estimated that the number of people dying from heart disease and stroke will approach 20 million by 2015. The risk event of unexpected death associated with it can be minimized by recognizing the challenges involved in its beginning, symptoms, and early detection. Therefore, this chapter aims to provide an idea for the diagnosis and therapeutics of CVD. Biosensors, created to be utilized as quick screening instruments to detect disease biomarkers early on and classify the condition, are revolutionizing CVD diagnosis and prognosis. Biosensors have become faster, more accurate, portable, and environmentally friendly diagnostic equipment as a result of advances in interdisciplinary study domains.

It is essential to manage the food requirement for the growing population. Food safety is important for health, but maintaining nutrients and food quality is also necessary for better health. Food storage and packing should be done carefully in order to avoid food contamination and ensure long-term food storage. There are various types of food hazards (biological, chemical, and others) that may contaminate food and cause food poisoning, foodborne diseases, allergies, and other health issues. For food quality examination, traditional procedures, such as chromatographic methods, are used, but these are time-consuming, labour-intensive and require an expert in instrumentation. It is critical to inspect the quality of food on a regular basis and as quickly as feasible. The greatest approach for overcoming these issues is the use of biosensor. As food additives and pollutants, the biosensor is extremely quick, sensitive, and selective. Biosensors are equipped with a transducer and a biological identification element, allowing them to evaluate food quality. Pesticides, poisons, microbial growth, protein, metals, fatty acids, antibiotics, vitamins, and other compounds can all be detected in food using biosensors. Biosensors have a wide range of applications in the food industries but there is also the demand for novel, inexpensive, simple, small-sized, portable, and multifunctional biosensors for food analysis. Biosensor can also detect food additives and pollutants throughout the packaging process

Several anthropogenic activities, chemical manufacturing, mining, nuclear waste, painting, metal processing, agricultural activities, cosmetic products and industrial activities are associated with heavy metal contamination in the wastewater. Heavy metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead mercury and nickel, are nonbiodegradable and highly toxic. They can directly or indirectly enter the food chain and cause several health issues, such as cancer, liver and kidney, asthma and mental retardation. Analytical methods such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and chromatography are widely used for heavy metal monitoring in heavy metal contaminations. These methods provide a sufficient level of sensitivity and selectivity, but these methods are costly, time-consuming and require sample preparation. Currently, biosensors are considered an alternative to conventional heavy metal monitoring methods due to high sensitivity, selectivity, inexpensiveness and simplicity. Herein, the authors report several biosensors and their application in monitoring heavy metal contaminations.