14^th International Conference & Exhibition on Biosensors & Bioelectronics September 25-26, 2020 Montreal, Canada

A biotransducer is the recognition-transduction component of a biosensor framework. It consists of 02 intimately coupled parts; 1) a bio-recognition layer, and 2) a physicochemical transducer, which acts together to converts a biochemical signal to an electronic or optical signal. Electronic biosensing offers significant advantages over optical, biochemical and biophysical methods, in terms of high sensitivity and new sensing mechanisms, high spatial resolution for localized detection, facile integration with standard wafer-scale semiconductor processing and label-free, real-time detection in a nondestructive manner. Gravimetric biosensors use the basic principle of a response to a change in mass. Most gravimetric biosensors use thin piezoelectric quartz crystals, either as resonating crystals (QCM), or as bulk/surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. Pyroelectric biosensors generate an electric current as a result of a temperature change. This differential induces a polarization in the substance, producing a dipole moment in the direction of the temperature gradient. The result is a net voltage across the material.

Biosensors in healthcare provide positive impact in diagnosing, monitoring and maintaining health. Biosensors also play an important role in driving healthy behaviours such as preventive health, “wellness”, and/or sports programs where tracking and trending of physiologic functions is of paramount importance.  Biosensor and their application & developments in healthcare are a wide research and scope. Such as for clinical or medical purposes has attracted scientific interest from the decades owing to the need for rapid, simplicity, effectively to hand-held testing devices in medicine. Biological sensors are electrical, optical, piezoelectrical devices that have the ability to detect biological compounds, such as nucleic acids and proteins.

Biosensors for Imaging: The field of optical sensors has been a growing research area over the last three decades. A wide range of books and review articles has been published by experts in the field who have highlighted the advantages of optical sensing over other transduction methods. Fluorescence is by far the method most often applied and comes in a variety of schemes. Nowadays, one of the most common approaches in the field of optical biosensors is to combine the high sensitivity of fluorescence detection in combination with the high selectivity provided by ligand-binding proteins. In this chapter we deal with reviewing our recent results on the implementation of fluorescence-based sensors for monitoring environmentally hazardous gas molecules. Medical Image Analysis provides a forum for the dissemination of new research results in the field of medical and biological image analysis, with special emphasis on efforts related to the applications of computer vision, virtual reality and robotics to biomedical imaging problems.

Bioinstrumentation is a part of Biomedical engineering application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g. diagnostic or therapeutic). This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine: It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. To ensure that good quality assurance practices are used for the design of medical devices and that they are consistent with quality system requirements worldwide, the Food and Drug Administration revised the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) requirements by incorporating them into the Quality System Regulation, 21 CFR Part 820. An important component of the revision is the addition of design controls.

Environmental Biosensors:  The majority of reported biosensor research has been directed toward development of devices for clinical markets; however, driven by a need for better methods for environmental surveillance, research into this technology is also expanding to encompass environmental applications. Biosensors are biophysical devices which can detect the presence of specific substances e.g. sugars, proteins, hormones, pollutants and a variety of toxins in the environment. They are also capable of measuring the quantities of these specific substances in the environment.

In Wearable Biosensors research & technology increasing today and promising to be one of the great developments & research in the sector of wearable health technology. Wearable Biosensors is a main category of biosensors is good to use for applications related to military, sports, healthcare etc. Rapid growths of these devices are on the ways which will provide advantages such as easily wearable & use, providing real time information in low cost.

Developments in wearable health technology and wearable biosensors have evolved to the point that they can be considered ready for all clinical purposes such as research, developments and future aspects. Wearable biosensors technologies could play an important role in the wireless tracking, wireless surveillance of people during hazardous operations such as firefighting, military and more.

Micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) micro-/nanoelectromechanical system (MEMS/NEMS) need to be designed to perform expected functions in short durations, typically in the millisecond to picosecond range. Most mechanical properties are known to be scale dependent, therefore the properties of nanoscale structures need to be measured. For BioMEMS/bioNEMS, BioMEMS/BioNEMS adhesion between biological molecular layer molecular layers and the substrate, and friction and wear of biological layers, can be important. Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology Bionics means the replacement or enhancement of organs or other body parts by mechanical versions. Bionic implants differ from mere prostheses by mimicking the original function very closely, or even surpassing it. Bio-robotics is the use of biological characteristics in living organisms as the knowledge base for developing new robot designs. The term can also refer to the use of biological specimens as functional robot components. Bio robotics intersects the fields of cybernetics, bionics, biology, physiology, and genetic engineering.

Bioelectronics: Biological properties can be measured and altered using electronics, magnetics, photonics, sensors, circuits, and algorithms. Applications range from basic biological science through clinical medicine, and enable new discoveries, diagnoses, and treatments by creating novel devices, systems, and analyses. Bioelectronics is a branch of nano-science and technology dealing with the investigation and the technological exploitation of electron transport properties in special classes of biomolecules. Albeit it deals with molecules that can donate to or receive electrons, biomolecular electronics has nothing to do with the molecular bases ruling the generation and propagation of electrical signals in neural cells, i.e. the action potential. Bioanalysis is one of the sub categories of Chemistry that helps in measuring Xenobiotics (unnatural concentration or location of drugs, Metabolites and biological molecules) in biological system. Biomedicine is a branch of medical sciences that deals with applying biological and natural science principles to clinical practices. It studies our ability to cope with the environmental changes.

In recent centuries, biosensors & bioelectronics research trends in the field of Neuroprosthetics. Driven by advances in microelectronics, computing and microsystem integration, it has now become possible to develop devices that effectively interface and interact with the nervous system. This programme aims at providing the technology for animal and clinical studies, such as neural recording, electrical neurostimulation, optogenetic stimulation and multi-modal neuromodulation to understand and listen to the brain better, in particular the cortex, the cerebellum and the thalamus.

Nanoelectronics covers a diverse set of devices and materials, with the common characteristic that they are so small that physical effects alter the materials ‘properties on a nanoscale – inter-atomic interactions and quantum mechanical properties play a significant role in the workings of these devices. At the nanoscale, new phenomena take precedence over those that hold sway in the macro-world. Quantum effects such as tunneling and atomistic disorder dominate the characteristics of these nanoscale devices.

Aptamers are oligonucleotide or peptide molecules that bind to a specific target molecule. Aptamers are created by selecting from a huge random sequence pool, but natural aptamers also exist in riboswitches. Immunosensors are built by means of the appropriate combination of the biomolecules with the transducer used together; they can be applied in specific analytical situations. Immunosensors commonly rely on the reuse of the same receptor surface for many measurements. A Biochip is a combination of minute DNA spots hooked up to a hard surface. Scientists use DNA Biochips to check the expression levels of a huge number of genes at the same time. Each DNA spot contains picomoles of a precise DNA sequence known as a probe. These can be a tiny section of a gene or a DNA particle that are used to cross breed a cDNA or cRNA. Probe-target cross breeding is usually quantified and detected by detection of the fluorophore. Silver or chemiluminescence-labeled targets to identify the corresponding abundance of nucleic-acid sequences in the target. Sensors are devices that respond to physical or chemical stimuli and produce detectable signals. They are a critical extension of human perception of the world in many aspects of modern society. This is large because we are much less sensitive to the chemical or biological environment than to the physical environment (e.g., light, pressure, temperature, or humidity). However, appropriate chemical or biological compositions are tightly linked to the quality of life.

A Biochip is a combination of minute DNA spots hooked up to a hard surface. Scientists use DNA Biochips to check the expression levels of huge number of genes at the same time. Each DNA spot contains Pico moles of a précised DNA sequence known as a probe.

Photonic Sensing focuses on experimental contributions related to novel principles, and structures or materials for photonic sensors. Optical fibers can be used as sensors to measure strain, temperature, pressure and other quantities by modifying a fiber so that the quantity to be measured modulates the intensity, phase, polarization and wavelength or transit time of light in the fiber. Sensors that vary the intensity of light are the simplest, since only a simple source and detector are required. A particularly useful feature of intrinsic optical fiber sensors is that they can, if required, provide distributed sensing over very large distances. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are optically active integrated semiconductor photonic devices which consist of at least two different functional blocks, (gain region and a grating based mirror in a laser...). These devices are responsible for commercial successes of optical communications and the ability to increase the available bandwidth without significant cost increases to the end user, through improved performance and cost reduction that they provide. The most widely deployed PICs are based on Indium phosphide material system. Silicon photonics is an active area of research.

A Gas Sensor is a device that detects the presence of gases in an area, often as part of a safety system. This type of equipment is used to detect a gas leak and interface with a control system so a process can be automatically shut down. A gas detector can sound an alarm to operators in the area where the leak is occurring, giving them the opportunity to leave. This type of device is important because there are many gases that can be harmful to organic life, such as humans or animals. Metal oxide-based resistive-type gas sensors are solid-state devices which are widely used in a number of applications from health and safety to energy efficiency and emission control. Nanomaterials such as nanowires, nanorods, and nanoparticles have dominated the research focus in this field due to their large number of surface sites facilitating surface reactions. Previous studies have shown that incorporating two or more metal oxides to form a heterojunction interface can have drastic effects on gas sensor performance, especially the selectivity. Interdigitated capacitive transducers have been inkjet printed onto flexible substrates and optimized for gas sensing applications. Their characteristics have been improved by tuning the annealing/sintering conditions and making use of additional passivation procedures, such as Ag electroplating with Ni or Parylene-C coating of the whole device surface. Surface acoustic wave sensors are a class of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) which rely on the modulation of surface acoustic waves to sense a physical phenomenon. The sensor transducers an input electrical signal into a mechanical wave which, unlike an electrical signal, can be easily influenced by physical phenomena. The device then transduces this wave back into an electrical signal. Changes in amplitude, phase, frequency, or time-delay between the input and output electrical signals can be used to measure the presence of the desired phenomenon. The calorimetric gas sensor is a device which uses calorimetry as the transduction principle and operates by measuring the heat of a reaction on the sensor surface. It is known that the exothermic nature of the combustion (the oxidation reaction) causes a rise in temperature.

Advancement in Nanotechnology: Nanolithography is the art and science of etching, writing, or printing at the microscopic level, where the dimensions of characters are on the order of nanometers (units of 10-9meter, or millionths of a millimeter). This includes various methods of modifying semiconductor chips at the atom ic level for the purpose of fabricating integrated circuits. Nanophotonics is the new emerging paradigm where light interacts with nano-scaled structures and brings forth the mysterious world to research. The combination of Photonics and Nanotechnology giving birth to “Nanophotonics” compliments and benefits each other in terms of new functions, materials, fabrication processes and applications.

Next-generation biosensor platforms will require significant improvements in sensitivity, specificity and parallelity in order to meet the future needs of a variety of fields ranging from in vitro medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical discovery and pathogen detection. Nanobiosensors, which exploit some fundamental nanoscopic effect in order to detect a specific biomolecular interaction, have now been developed to a point where it is possible to determine in what cases their inherent advantages over traditional techniques (such as nucleic acid microarrays) more than offset the added complexity and cost involved constructing and assembling the devices.        

Nanosensors are chemical or mechanical sensors that can be used to detect the presence of chemical species and nanoparticles, or monitor physical parameters such as temperature, on the nanoscale. They also find use in medical diagnostic applications.

Biosensing technologies are of increasing importance in healthcare, agri-food, environmental and security sectors, and this is reflected in the continued growth of global markets for such technologies. Biomechanics is closely related to engineering, because it often uses traditional engineering sciences to analyze biological systems. Some simple applications of Newtonian mechanics and/or materials sciences can supply correct approximations to the mechanics of many biological systems. Reliable methodologies are needed for point and stand-off detection of chemical, biological, radiological, special nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) materials. These technological needs are not universally military in nature. For example, there is pervasive interest among diverse disciplines such as medicine, law enforcement, explosive ordinance disposal, Natural environmental protection, industrial manufacturing and food processing in being able to develop capabilities for the rapid detection and identification capabilities for various biochemical markers.

Bioengineering is the interface between medicine and engineering. Working with scientists, practices and researchers, bioengineers use traditional engineering principles and techniques and improving them to real-world biological and medical issues.

Bioengineering is to collaboration between engineering and the life sciences that enhance the scientific research, mythology and the invention of new cutting-edge technologies which impacts on future research and education process.