Biosensors: an Introduction

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The need and the idea for this book came out of the author's involvement in delivering a lecture course on biosensors to final year students of the highly successful Honours Degree in Applied Biochemical Sciences at the University of Ulster at lordanstown. This four-year course was designed to meet the needs of local industry in Northern Ireland. It includes courses in chemistry, biochemistry, analytical methods, industrial studies and computing, business studies, projects in science and business studies, with the third year spent on placement in industry, usually in the UK or Ireland. The 12 lecture + 12 hour laboratory course in biosensors is part of a module called 'special topics', which also includes bioinorganic chemistry and chemotherapeutics. There were not many books covering biosensors, and those that did exist were mostly specialised, but good reference books for further reading. A reasonable background knowledge of electro analytical methods is needed as a prerequisite for a study of biosensors. In our course this material is covered as part of the advanced analytical methods module. A substantial part of this book is devoted to electrochemical transducers. The book commences with an introductory chapter about the nature of biosensors, their components and applications. This is followed by a chapter surveying the groups of biological components involved in biosensors. Chapter 3 covers the various ways in which the biological components can be attached to the transducers, i.e. immobilised.