BIOSENSORS IN CHEMICAL SEPARATIONS

Identification of biomolecules in complex biological mixtures represen ts a major challenge in biomedical, environmental, and chemical resear ch today. Chemical separations with traditional detection schemes such as absorption, fluorescence, refractive index, conductivity, and elec trochemistry have been the standards for definitive identifications of many compounds. In many instances, however, the complexity of the bio mixture exceeds the resolution capability of chemical separations. Bio sensors based on molecular recognition can dramatically improve the se lectivity of and provide biologically relevant information about the c omponents. This review describes how coupling chemical separations wit h online biosensors solves challenging problems in sample analysis by identifying components that would not normally be detectable by either technique alone. This review also presents examples and principles of combining chemical separations with biosensor detection that uses liv ing systems, whole cells, membrane receptors, enzymes, and immunosenso rs.