Biosensors & IoT Assignment-2

Submission Link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdc7SEbgfwZoCS9Vw5P49S7I_EOlOxdock3X
1K9d7hON5hLjg/viewform

1. Define Biosensor. Give a schematic representation of a typical biosensor and

explain its parts. 

Definition:
A biosensor is a device that measures biological or chemical reactions by generating
signals proportional to the concentration of an analyte in the reaction. Biosensors are
employed in applications such as disease monitoring, drug discovery, and detection of
pollutants, disease-causing micro-organisms and markers that are indicators of a disease
in bodily fluids (blood, urine, saliva, sweat).

A typical biosensor is represented in Figure 1; it consists of the following components.

 Analyte: A substance of interest that needs detection. For instance, glucose is an
‘analyte’ in a biosensor designed to detect glucose.
 Bioreceptor: A molecule that specifically recognises the analyte is known as a
bioreceptor. Enzymes, cells, aptamers, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and antibodies
are some examples of bioreceptors. The process of signal generation (in the form of
light, heat, pH, charge or mass change, etc.) upon interaction of the bioreceptor with
the analyte is termed bio-recognition.
 Transducer: The transducer is an element that converts one form of energy into
another. In a biosensor the role of the transducer is to convert the bio-recognition
event into a measurable signal. This process of energy conversion is known as
signalisation. Most transducers produce either optical or electrical signals that are
usually proportional to the amount of analyte–bioreceptor interactions.
 Electronics: This is the part of a biosensor that processes the transduced signal and
prepares it for display. It consists of complex electronic circuitry that performs signal
conditioning such as amplification and conversion of signals from analogue into the
digital form. The processed signals are then quantified by the display unit of the
biosensor.
 Display: The display consists of a user interpretation system such as the liquid crystal
display of a computer or a direct printer that generates numbers or curves
understandable by the user. This part often consists of a combination of hardware and
software that generates results of the biosensor in a user-friendly manner. The output
signal on the display can be numeric, graphic, tabular or an image, depending on the
requirements of the end user.
 Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4986445/
Bhalla, N., Jolly, P., Formisano, N., & Estrela, P. (2016). Introduction to
biosensors. Essays in biochemistry, 60(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1042/EBC20150001
2. Explain the mechanism of light propagation through the optical fibre
waveguide.
http://electron6.phys.utk.edu/optics421/modules/m8/Optical%20Wave%20Guides.htm
 3. Explain the biochemical sensing scheme and the design of any enzyme-based
SPR biosensor.

Fiber Optic SPR-Based Sensors

In the case of a prism-based SPR sensor evanescent wave required to excite surface plasmons
is resulted due to the total internal reflection taking place at the prism-metal interface when
the angle of incidence of the beam is greater than the critical angle. The evanescent wave is
also present in an optical fiber because the light guidance in an optical fiber occurs due to the
total internal reflection of the guided ray at the core-cladding interface. In the case of optical
fiber the evanescent wave propagates along the core-cladding interface. Therefore, to design
an SPR-based fiber optic sensor, the prism can be replaced by the core of an optical fiber. To
fabricate an SPR-based fiber optic sensor, the silicon cladding from a small portion of the
fiber, preferably from the middle, is removed and the unclad core is coated with a metal
layer. The metal layer is further, surrounded by a dielectric sensing layer as shown in
Figure 4. In an SPR-based fiber optic sensor, all the guided rays are launched and hence,
instead of angular interrogation, spectral interrogation method is used. The light from a
polychromatic source is launched into one of the ends of the optical fiber. The evanescent
field produced by the guided rays excites the surface plasmons at the metal-dielectric sensing
layer interface. The coupling of evanescent field with surface plasmons strongly depends on
wavelength, fiber parameters, probe geometry, and the metal layer properties. Unlike prism-
based SPR sensor, the number of reflections for most of the guided rays is greater than one in
SPR-based fiber optic sensor geometry. The smaller the angle of incidence at the interface,
the larger is the number of reflections per unit length in the fiber. In addition, the number of
reflections for any ray also depends on the length of the sensing region and the fiber core
diameter. The number of reflections is one of the important parameters that affect the width
of the SPR curve. The intensity of the light transmitted after passing through the SPR sensing
region is detected at the other end of the fiber as a function of wavelength. The SPR spectrum
thus obtained is similar in shape to that shown in Figure 2. The sensing is accomplished by
observing the wavelength corresponding to the dip in the spectrum (called resonance
wavelength). A plot of resonance wavelength with the refractive index of the sensing layer is
the calibration curve of the SPR sensor. The sensitivity and the detection accuracy are
determined in the same way as determined in the case of angular interrogation. The angles are
replaced by wavelengths in the definitions of sensitivity and detection accuracy.
Figure 4 
A typical probe of an SPR-based fiber optic sensor [23]. © IEEE.

*A Novel Enzyme-Based SPR Strategy for Detection of the.pdf

4. Explain the mechanism of fiber-optic SPR biosensor based on antibody-

mediated biorecognition.
Surface plasmon resonance (SPR), which is based on the interaction of light and free electrons in the
semi-transparent noble metal layer placed on a dielectric substrate, is one of the most sensitive and
commonly used techniques for monitoring interactions between two unlabelled molecules1. Thus,
the binding of an analyte, present in solution, to its receptor-ligand immobilized on the metal
surface results in the local change of the refractive index (RI) of the surrounding medium, which in
turn affects the electromagnetic wave propagating along the metal–dielectric interface in a highly
sensitive manner.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17276-3