Department of Materials Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0FS, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Sep 30;20(19):5605. doi: 10.3390/s20195605.
Biosensors are powerful analytical tools for biology and biomedicine, with applications ranging from drug discovery to medical diagnostics, food safety, and agricultural and environmental monitoring. Typically, biological recognition receptors, such as enzymes, antibodies, and nucleic acids, are immobilized on a surface, and used to interact with one or more specific analytes to produce a physical or chemical change, which can be captured and converted to an optical or electrical signal by a transducer. However, many existing biosensing methods rely on chemical, electrochemical and optical methods of identification and detection of specific targets, and are often: complex, expensive, time consuming, suffer from a lack of portability, or may require centralised testing by qualified personnel. Given the general dependence of most optical and electrochemical techniques on labelling molecules, this review will instead focus on mechanical and electrical detection techniques that can provide information on a broad range of species without the requirement of labelling. These techniques are often able to provide data in real time, with good temporal sensitivity. This review will cover the advances in the development of mechanical and electrical biosensors, highlighting the challenges and opportunities therein.
生物传感器是生物学和生物医学领域的强大分析工具，其应用范围从药物发现到医学诊断、食品安全以及农业和环境监测。通常，生物识别受体，如酶、抗体和核酸，被固定在表面上，并用于与一个或多个特定分析物相互作用，产生物理或化学变化，该变化可以通过换能器被捕获并转换为光学或电信号。然而，许多现有的生物传感方法依赖于化学、电化学和光学方法来识别和检测特定目标，并且通常：复杂、昂贵、耗时、缺乏便携性，或者可能需要由合格人员进行集中测试。鉴于大多数光学和电化学技术通常依赖于标记分子，因此本综述将重点介绍机械和电气检测技术，这些技术无需标记即可提供广泛物种的信息。这些技术通常能够实时提供数据，具有良好的时间敏感性。本综述将涵盖机械和电气生物传感器的发展进展，突出其中的挑战和机遇。
