A. St John

ARC Consulting, Perth, W Australia

Biosensors are devices that utilise a biological recognition element in conjunction with a transducer to produce a signal in proportion to the concentration of the substance being measured. If one takes a broad definition of sensor, then sensor technologies may be responsible for up to 25% of chemistry determinations performed in clinical settings. True biosensors with the exception of glucose measurements are a small portion of this market yet the last 5 years have seen this technology mature to the extent that a number of important analytes such as cardiac markers, drugs and infectious agents are now determined using commercially available biosensors. In the future we are likely to see biosensors that utilise the technology and clinical information emerging from the human genome project so called Gene-Chips or arrays. Despite the undoubted impact that genomics will have on disease diagnosis and management it is possible that the most important biosensor technology will continue to be glucose measurements for some considerable time in the future.