Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
approaches have been available in genotyping processes such as
polymerase extension [4], oligonucleotide ligation [5], enzymatic
cleavage [6], and flap endonuclease discrimination [7].
An optimum detection method should be compact, highly
sensitive and selective, rapid, high throughput, and cost effective.
Many fast and sensitive methods have been designed to specify only
one or a few target sequences simultaneously. While thousands of
genotypes can be analyzed by using several methods, these devices
are stillvery expensiveandtime consuming [8].
Nucleicacid-basedbiosensorshavegainedabroadacceptancein
diagnostictesting,sequencespecificanalysis,DNAdruginteractions,
detection of transgenic foods, and microbiological and inherited
diseases in clinical analysis. The growing number of nucleic acid-
based biosensors has stimulated a demand for automated, cost-
effective testing devices that also afford miniaturization of the test
platform [9].
Recently, some reports have indicated that electrochemical
techniques in nucleic acid biosensors are well suited for measuring
hybridizationevent [10].
Electrochemical DNA biosensor techniques for the detection of
microbiological and inherited diseases devoted to clinical analysis
are presented dealing with past and novel developments in this
chapter. For this purpose; particular emphasis will be given to the
most important approaches for electrochemical genosensing.
13.2 Biosensors
A biosensor is an analytical device that has a recognition capability
for biochemical reactions. It consists of a biological material incor-
porated into a recognition interface connected with a physicochem-
ical transducer [11]. The recognition interface is based on specific
biochemical reactions such as enzyme/cofactor, antigen/antibody,
cell/receptor, and nucleic acids. The physicochemical transducer
recognizes this reaction and converts it to quantitative or semi-
quantitative measurable signal [12]. The aim of the biosensor
techniques is monitoring the biological analytes for
in vivo
and
in
