Nanotoxicity assessment: A challenging application for cutting edge electroanalytical tools.

In the recent years, the number of commercial products containing engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) has increased exponentially. Consequently, the toxicological profile of ENMs on the ecosystems as well as on human health has to be carefully evaluated. Nanotoxicology, an interdisciplinary research area devoted to assessing the hazards associated with ENMs, is expanding rapidly. Many physicochemical techniques and biochemical methodologies have been proposed and are currently used to characterize nanomaterials from a toxicological point of view. Electroanalytical and bioelectrochemical methods can be useful in expanding the repertoire of accessible nanotoxicity-assessment technologies and to accelerate the testing and screening of the toxicological effects of ENMs. These methods can be used for elucidating the toxicological behavior of ENMs at single cell, cell population and whole-organism levels, for in vitro and in vivo measurements, respectively. The aim of this review is to provide an overview on the bioelectrochemical approaches that have been proposed for ENMs toxicity assessment. Furthermore, an overview on cutting-edge electroanalytical devices with a potential impact to this peculiar application is provided.

Electroanalytical biosensors and their potential for food pathogen and toxin detection.

The detection and identification of foodborne pathogens continue to rely on conventional culturing techniques. These are very elaborate, time-consuming, and have to be completed in a microbiology laboratory and are therefore not suitable for on-site monitoring. The need for a more rapid, reliable, specific, and sensitive method of detecting a target analyte, at low cost, is the focus of a great deal of research. Biosensor technology has the potential to speed up the detection, increase specificity and sensitivity, enable high-throughput analysis, and to be used for monitoring of critical control points in food production. This article reviews food pathogen detection methods based on electrochemical biosensors, specifically amperometric, potentiometric, and impedimetric biosensors. The underlying principles and application of these biosensors are discussed with special emphasis on new biorecognition elements, nanomaterials, and lab on a chip technology.