Trends in Cell-Based Electrochemical Biosensors

Cell-based electrochemical biosensors have contributed tremendously to the fields of biology, medicine, chemistry, pharmacology, and environmental science. With electrochemical transducers and whole cells as the recognition elements, these biosensors provide new horizons for biosensing and life science research. This review focuses on the research accomplishments on this topic over the last three years, and is divided into three sections according to the types of cellular responses. Our aim is to highlight how simple and sensitive electrochemical methods can be coupled with cells by virtue of the integration of interface control, nanotechnology and genetic engineering to generate new enabling technologies. Some specific examples to demonstrate how these sensors are useful in medicinal chemistry and drug design have also been discussed. It is hoped that this review can provide inspiration for the development of fast, selective, sensitive, and convenient detection and diagnosis platforms.