Preface

Disease outbreaks caused by various pathogens that have rapidly evolved into pandemics are becoming more common and frequent. Within the span of slightly over a century, the effects of these pandemics from Spanish flu in the early 20th century to COVID-19 in the first quarter of the 21st century have been devastating. Detecting pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, have become a crucial task in preventing future outbreaks and to avoid the need for widespread and crippling lockdowns that have significantly impacted societies and economic activities. The absence of rapid detection methods that are able to diagnose early stages of infections has led to the rapid spread of these diseases that quickly developed into pandemics. Therefore, the capacity to rapidly detect infections and disrupt their spread are the major motivations driving the advancements in the use of field effect transistors (FETs) that we elaborate on in this book. The concept of such devices was introduced to the world by J. E. Lilienfeld via a patent application for a FET in 1925. However, it was only decades later that the first biosensor was developed by Clark in 1962. A few years later, Bergveld in 1970 introduced for the first time an ion-sensitive FET (ISFET), which had been used to detect several ions such as hydrogen (pH), potassium and others that are of physiological interest. This paved the way for the introduction of biologically modified field-effect transistors (BioFETs).

In this title, Field-Effect Transistor Biosensors for Rapid Pathogen Detection, we have invited prominent researchers in the field of BioFETs for pathogen detection to contribute chapters. This book outlines a selection of BioFET applications in this field, which has been divided in two main parts. The first part includes chapters that deal with the history of ISFETs and their future, the physics of FET devices, electrolyte gated FET biosensors, and the challenges in the detection of emerging novel pathogens and evolving known pathogens. The second part includes chapters on the rapid detection of microorganisms based on FET devices, field-effect transistor biosensors based on nanomaterials for zoonotic pathogen detection, and field-effect transistor biosensors for rapid SARS-COV-2 detection, with the last chapter in this part discussing the future of commercializing FET-based biosensors.

Naif H. M. Al-Hardan

Azman Jalar

Muhammed Azmi Abdul Hamid

Mohd Firdaus Raih