An electronic tongue in the dairy industry

The concept of electronic tongues or taste sensors has developed rapidly during recent years due to their large potential. They are based on electrochemical sensors combined with multivariate data analysis. Voltammetric electronic tongues have proven valuable in many applications. Due to their ruggedness and simplicity, they have been found especially suitable for on-line monitoring of industrial processes. A voltammetric electronic tongue, specially designed for use in the dairy industry is described. It consisted of four working electrodes (gold, platinum, rhodium and stainless steel), embedded in PEEK (TM). It was mounted in a housing of stainless steel, which was inserted in the process line for direct on-line measurements. The voltammetric electronic tongue was used to follow different sources of milk coming into the process and to monitor the cleaning process. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Enzyme-Amplified Array Sensing of Proteins in Solution and in Biofluids

We have developed an enzyme−nanoparticle sensor array where the sensitivity is amplified through enzymatic catalysis. In this approach cationic gold nanoparticles are electrostatically bound to an enzyme (β-galactosidase, β-Gal), inhibiting enzyme activity. Analyte proteins release the β-Gal, restoring activity and providing an amplified readout of the binding event. Using this strategy we have been able to identify proteins in buffer at a concentration of 1 nM, substantially lower than current strategies for array-based protein sensing. Moreover, we have obtained identical sensitivity in studies where the proteins are spiked into the complex protein matrix provided by desalted human urine (1.5 μM total protein; spiked protein concentrations were 0.067% of the overall protein concentration), demonstrating the potential of the method for diagnostic applications