Biosensors versus separation techniques: Contrasting strategies, common issues, friend or foe.

This presentation will discuss the state of the art in optical and electrochemical biosensing research including what some of the challenges and barriers are to commercialization of such devices. Some solution to these challenges that have arisen from nanotechnology will be discussed through work from our own laboratory. An emphasis will be placed on affinity based biosensors because of the parallels to separation methods. Once touted as the end of laboratory based analytical methods it will be argued that a biosensor is more a friend than a foe to separation methods. A biosensor is simply just a detector. How that detector is used is very dependent on the analytical situation. For example, the need for upstream sample preparation is determined by not only the selectivity of the detector but also the nature of the sample, the concentration of the analyte and the information the analytical method is required to give.  One of the common themes, to many separation methods and biosensing, is that molecular interactions at a surface play a large role in determining the quality of the analytical information that is provided.  We have focused a large portion of our research effort on how to fabricate biosensing interfaces that incorporate all the features needed for a given biosensing device using self-assembly approaches that provide us with close to molecular level control over the design of the interface.  And yet we have no way of monitoring the surface interactions at the molecular level. The presentation will also discuss our strategies to solve this conundrum and perhaps allow even more effective analytical interfaces to be designed and made.