From biosensors to lab-on-chip: Developing chip-based biosensors for environmental and clinical applications

The current advancement in electronic technology and the emerging of nanotechnology is revolutionalising the development and use of biosensors. A biosensor is an analytical device for the detection of an analyte that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector component. A common example of a commercial biosensor is the blood glucose biosensor, which uses the enzyme glucose oxidase to break blood glucose down, thereby the electrons released and measured as current, and translated into blood glucose concentration. One of the new developments in the field of biosensors is the coupling of the biosensor process with electronic chips to produce as lab-on-chip platform of environmental as well as clinical application. A lab-on-chip platform is a device that integrates laboratory functions on a single chip of only millimetres to a few square centimetres in size. It deal with the handling of extremely small fluid volumes down to less than picolitres and has an advantage of providing rapid analytics, easiness and cost effective to operate. In the talk, I will discuss techniques and challenges in development of the lab-on-chip based for pollution detection and wound healing based on own research experience. Specifically, I will discuss the challenge of coupling a leaving cell biosensor with an electronic chip in fluorescence-based biosensor, and give some examples of wound healing technology using impedance-based biosensor.