Fluorescence and Optical Fiber

Abstract

In the previous chapter, we learned about spectrophotometric detection for biosensor applications, namely, detection of light absorbance at a certain wavelength. This method works well for a variety of applications, including, obviously, glucose sensing. Despite its popularity, it has some limitations. The glucose assay utilizes the use of the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOx) that can only detect glucose. To detect other target biomolecules, we need to find an appropriate enzyme that specifically binds to and oxidize them. This is not an easy task, especially when the target is a complicated biomolecule, such as a protein, virus, or even bacterium, where its oxidation is sometimes not at all possible.

This chapter is jointly written with Lonnie J. Lucas (Applied Energetics)