Electrochemical cell-based sensors

Abstract

One of the recently developed monitoring technologies involves the use of whole cell biosensors. Such biosensors can be constructed to detect expression of genes of interest and the effect of the environment on this expression. These biosensors are essential for monitoring environmental stress, such as general toxicity or specific toxicity caused by pollutants. Currently, a large spectrum of microbial biosensors have been developed that enable the monitoring of gene expression by measuring light, fluorescence, color, or electric current. The electrochemical monitoring is of special interest for in situ measurements as it can be performed using simple, compact, and mobile equipment and is easily adaptable for online measurements. Here we survey the potential application of electrochemical biosensors with special focus on monitoring environmental pollution. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.