ORIGINAL ARTICLES  NEW TRENDS IN BIOENCAPSULATION - Part 2 

Minerva Biotecnologica 2006 March;18(1):51-6

Copyright © 2006 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Bacteria immobilization for a bioluminescent biosensor

Pernetti M. ^{1, 2}, Annesini M. C. ¹, Merli C. ¹, Thouand G. ³, Poncelet D. ²

¹ Chemical Engineering Department La Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy 2 ENITIAA, Nantes, France 3 CBAC, IUT of La Roche-sur-Yon, France

Microbial biosensors provide detection of specific compounds with rapid and simple operations. In order to enhance the handling, the miniaturization and stability of the biosensor, bacteria immobilization is desirable. This paper proposes a suitable immobilization system for a microbial biosensor detecting pollutants in water. Agarose, alginate and poly-vinyl-alcohol were tested. As there is a lack of systematic studies in literature, this work tried to evaluate the effects of immobilization on biosensing performances, through comparison with suspended bacteria. Analyte detection, storage stability and the possibility of re-using immobilized bacteria were investigated.