Super-sensitive biosensor created
A schematic showing the new biosensor used to detect enrofloxacin. Magnets are used to assemble nanoparticles, coated with antibodies to enrofloxacin (blue snowflakes), between two electrodes. When antibodies leave the nanoparticles (as on the right-hand image) the electrical resistance falls. Image: UNSW A whole new class of biosensor that can detect exceptionally small traces of contaminants in liquids in just 40 minutes has been developed by a UNSW-led team of researchers.Known as a biochemiresistor, it meets a long-standing challenge to create a sensor that is not only super-sensitive to the presence of chemical compounds but responds quickly. It has countless potential uses for detecting drugs, toxins and pesticides for biomedical or environmental analysis.In a paper published in the prestigious chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie the researchers describe how they successfully tested the new sensor by detecting tiny traces in milk of the veterinary antibiotic enrofloxacin. The journal has singled out the study for...