Interdigitated Biosensor for Multiparametric Monitoring of Bacterial Biofilm Development

Adhesion and growth of bacterial biofilms causes numerous problems in a wide variety of sectors, and more particularly, in those related to the medical environment or the industry. Treatment and disposal of this kind of infections is often hampered by the antibiotic resistance of biofilms as well as by a total lack of symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, it is necessary to find new methods for the early detection of biofilm development so as to improve the efficiency of treatments and to reduce the health complications suffered by patients. For this purpose, this paper focuses on the design and development of interdigitated microelectrode based biosensors that allow the detection of bacterial adhesion since the first steps of biofilm generation through impedance spectroscopy and electrochemistry. Both techniques have been proved as suitable tools for biofilm sensing and the results of the monitorization of bacterial biofilms of S. epidermidis in culture medium are presented. While variations of 40 % within a few hours of incubation have been achieved with impedimetric monitoring, electrochemistry increases both selectivity and sensitivity of the recorded measurements (variations of 60% have been obtained). Moreover, a multiparametric design for electrochemical and temperature measurements that will allow to obtain additional information of bacterial activity is presented.