Novel sensors to detect molecules for medicine and agrifood
(Phys.org)—Agribusiness and medicine are constantly seeking more efficient methods for detecting biomolecules. To meet this need, a novel concept of miniaturized sensors has been developed by researchers from LAAS-CNRS and the Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier in collaboration with HEMODIA, a company specialized in the development of medical devices. These sensors can measure the concentration in solution of a range of substances such as glucose, lactate and glutamate, which can help in making medical diagnosis or which are of interest in the food processing industry. This device, known as ElecFET, combines, for the first time, an acidity microsensor and an enzyme specific to the molecule studied, placed on the surface of a metal microelectrode. The integration of these two components on an electronic silicon chip at the micrometric scale represents a real technological advance. This work is published on 8 November 2012 in the journal Biosensors & Bioelectronics.