Biosensors for Environmental Monitoring: an Update

Environmental safety is the key requirements of our well-being. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have greatly contributed several pollutants such as heavy metals, inorganic and organic compounds, pesticides, toxins, endocrine disrupting hormones, etc. to the environment. The presence of such pollutants is becoming a major global challenge for environmental security and human health. Although regulatory bodies are trying to control such pollutants at the source of entry, but still requires an effective and integrated environmental management program. Therefore, beside to minimizing/reducing or eliminating the amounts of hazardous effluents into the environment, there is an emergent need to methods that can detect and monitor these environmental pollutants in sensitive and selective manner to enable effective remediation. Application of modern nanotechnology based biosensors has a great potential for environmental surveillance and detection of pollutants. Such biodevices are portable and give rapid responses in real time. In this paper, the author has discussed the key concepts behind the development of biosensor and explored the most relevant applications in the area of environmental monitoring. In addition, the author has also reviewed new developments, challenges in the development of biosensor along with future research direction in biosensing technology for sustainable environment monitoring.