Biosensors based on 4-wells microarray systems: Study, design, construction and applications

Abstract

An electrochemical and an electro-optical transduction system compose the apparatus presented in this paper, defined as a biosensoristic system; it uses a field measurement support and versatile miniaturized device called MEA (multiple arrays of microelectrodes). This paper explains the main measurement techniques this apparatus uses, composed of a double system of amperometric and fluorescence measurement at four wavelengths for each well. It is focused on MEA devices with four wells, which allow the use of up to four different types of biomediator. The design, construction, study and applications are also presented. The paper have been structured with the following sections: hardware, mechanical system, optical system, software and biochemical application. The apparatus described has a wide range of employments but important scientific applications are the determination of possible anomalies of the human body in the biomedical field, and the detection of pesticides or heavy metals in water or foods in the environmental sector. The use of special biomediators such as photosystem II (PSII), or thylakoid membranes, extracted from plants or green algae result fundamental in the last case. Signals coming from the biological material are correlated to the concentration levels of each biomediator. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media.