Nanotechnology-Enabled Sensors

7.9 Summary 471
metal oxides, carbon as well as conductive and non-conductive polymeric
surfaces were described. Along with these descriptions, a large number of
examples, discussing the applications of these strategies in corporation
with major transcducing platforms (which were introduced in Chap. 3) for
biosensing applications, were also presented.
Proteins and their capabilities were described as organic nanodevices. It
was seen that proteins, as intelligent assemblies of organic molecules, are
able to perform a large number of different tasks ranging from sensing,
producing signals, to carrying bioparticles. Some of the typical applications
of proteins in the development of sensors were presented and the
methods to manipulate their functionalities in order to develop sensing
tools were presented. The significance of proteins in sensing applications
was further expanded by describing how enzymes and antibodies can be
employed in relevant sensing applications.
DNA molecules, as the building blocks of natural entities, were described.
It was seen that DNA can be efficiently used as a lock and key
element for the development of biochips and selective sensors. It was further
presented that DNA strands can also be utilized as elements for the
fabrication of sensing structures as they provides ready-made units for the
assembly of nanostructures.
The conjugates of metallic and nonmetallic nanoparticles with proteins
and sensors were introduced and it was shown that they can be used for the
fabrications of sensors and for the modifications of surfaces. It was also
observed that DNA’s excellent optical and electrical properties can be manipulated
in a large number of ways for sensing applications.
In the last part of this section, other concepts in organic sensors such as
the usage of molecules with dendritic architectures, the application of the
force spectroscopy and microscopy in organic sensing and eventually some
examples about magnetic nanomaterials in biosensing were presented.