BiosensingTechnology is Alive andWell
Sensor100
Attends 3rd International Bio-Sensing Technol-
ogy Conference
Have you ever eaten Xató? (No? Me neither.) It is a cold dish of
endive, salt cod, tuna, anchovies and other things covered with sauce
and it is the gastronomic speciality of Sitges in Spain. Sitges is a
coastal resort about 35 km from Barcelona, where wealthy people
sail boats and otherwise enjoy themselves; during the third week in
May it was the venue for the 3rd International Conference on Bio-
sensing Technology. This conference, which occurs in alternate years
between theWorld Congress on Biosensors, is the brainchild of
Pro-
fessor Richard Luxton
of the Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology at
the University of theWest of England.
Over 350 delegates descended on Sitges to explore current thinking
and progress in bio-sensing for two and half days, with a couple of
workshops at the end for good measure. Anyone under the impres-
sion that biosensors were a technology in decline would have left
sadly disillusioned. Among the mostly young and academic audience
there was an almost palpable sense of energy, enthusiasm and opti-
mism for the future of biosensors.
As needs must be in conference planning, there were five invited
speakers to deliver the word from on high.
TonyTurner,
needing
no introduction, kicked off proceedings with a keynote on how to
turn biosensors into consumer products.
Norman Radcliffe
(Uni-
versity of theWest of England) enthralled and disgusted us in equal
part with volatiles from bodily secretions.
JosephWang
(University
of California at San Diego) captured everyone’s attention with his jet
propelled nano-motors, which could approach, pick-up and then dis-
card a target on command, and relative to their length moved faster
than a cheetah.
