Walter F. M. Stöcklein

• Biosensors are analytical devices incorporating biological material (receptor) intimately associated with or integrated within a physicochernical transducer. Advantages are the high selectivity for analyte detection. Examples given comprise the very successful commercial blood glucose biosensors made for the self-control by the diabetic patients. Other biosensors are part of an analytic system, including the sensor chips Of surface plasmon resonance or interferometry based devices, piezoelectric or reflectometric sensors capable of direct measurement of mass changes, and thermometric and other reagentless sensors. The development of nanotubes-based devices allows for significant enhancment of the signal-to-noise ratio of the biosensors. A milestone on the way towards miniaturization and parallelization of biosensors is the recently developed and prize-winning electronic DNA chip