CHAPTER 6: Electrochemical Magneto-immunosensors as Fast and Efficient Tools for Point-of-care Diagnostics

© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019. Electrochemical magneto-immunosensors employ magnetic particles (MP) for analyte specific binding and pre-concentration, before the electrochemical detection (ED) of the assay takes place. This provides faster and more efficient analyte immunocapture than binding on two-dimensional structures and higher signals than classical immunosensing. In this context, electrochemical detection supplies high sensitivity and fast signal generation using robust and potentially miniaturised measurement equipment and transducers. However, MP handling is slightly more complex for end-users and more difficult to integrate in inexpensive point-of-care (POC) devices than manipulation of classical biosensors. In this chapter, we discuss some of the clues for the successful optimisation of electrochemical magneto-immunosensors and we review the attempts made to automate immuno-magnetic binding and operate electrochemical magneto-immunosensors using low-cost POC devices.