Rapid development in micro- and nanotechnologies in recent years has createdopportunities for the technology to connect to individual cells, bacteriaand viruses (Figure 8.1). The ability to sense biological properties createsamazing opportunities to improve human lives through advances in earlydisease detection, health monitoring, and new biology-based products. Evenmore exciting is the technology’s ability to sense DNA and proteins.The exploration of bio-organic device functionality and sensing in thefuture will require interfacing to traditional electronic materials andstructures [1,2].

An example of one such interface was recently considered in the context ofthe resonant sensing of biomolecules [3]. Resonant far-infrared (IR)spectroscopy is a common technique for the characterization of biologicalmolecules. The lower portion of the THz spectrum of DNA and proteins is alsobeing actively studied using both experimental and computational methods. Todate, good progress has been made in the detection and identification ofbiomaterials, and interest is rapidly increasing across the scientific andtechnology communities.

Biosensors (Figure 8.2) are defined as analytical devices incorporating abiological material (tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell receptors,enzymes, antibodies, or nucleic acids), a biologically derived material(recombinant antibodies, engineered proteins, aptamers) or a biomimic(synthetic receptors, biomimetic catalysts, combinatorial ligands, imprintedpolymers) intimately associated with or integrated within a physicochemicaltransducer or transducing microsystem, which may be optical,electrochemical, thermometric, piezoelectric, magnetic, or micromechanical[4, 5]. The generated electrical signal is related to the concentration ofanalytes through the biological reactions.