Chemical kinetics and mass transport in an ion channel based biosensor

This paper deals with the construction and analysis of distributed dynamical models for a novel biosensor that exploits the molecular switching mechanism of biological ion channels. The rate of change of the concentration of the chemical species in the biosensor are given by a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations in the reaction-rate limited region of operation. When the transport rate of analyte to the biosensor surface is comparable to the intrinsic reaction rates, the dynamics of the biosensor are explained accurately using a two dimensional advection diffusion parabolic partial differential equation. When the rate of transport of analyte to the biosensor surface is much slower than the intrinsic reaction rates the biosensor is said to be operating under mass transport limited conditions. Under these conditions a system of coupled ordinary differential equations and the mass transport coefficient model the dynamics of the biosensor accurately. The equivalent mathematical models are shown to produce accurate data under the required operating conditions by comparison with experimental data.