By Hazimin Sulaiman

MARDI, the Malaysian Agricultural, Research and Development Institute, with the partnership and cooperation with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, SIRIM, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Industri Selangor and Universiti Malaysia Perlis has recently organised the first Regional Conference on Biosensor and Biodiagnostics 2008.

The two - day conference was officiated by Datuk Abdul Shukor Abd. Rahman, Director General, MARDI. The conference is to provide a platform for scientists and intellectuals to gather, update and exchange information on the current status of the biosensor and biodiagnostics in food safety, environment and agricultural fields.

According to Abdul Shukor the utilisation of biosensor technology in agriculture can tremendously enhance efforts to increase the quality of crops, identification of pathogen attacks and the prevention of diseases.

"Recent advances in the life sciences are making a reality, the prediction that this will be the century of biotechnology. A wide range of R&D activities are maturing at a remarkably rapid pace: healthcare technologies drawing on genetics, genomics and protomics that promise better health outcomes; more sustainable and higher value-added food, enzymatic processes in manufacturing that reduce energy and water consumption and the generation of toxic wastes, new bio-based nanomaterials, bioinformatics and much more," says Abdul Shukor.

A research scientist in the Georgia Tech Research Instituteís Electro- Optical Systems Laboratory, tests a sample using the optical waveguide sensor to detect avian flu.

The future that Abdul Shukor forsees is that in probably 20 to 30 years, these applications may well become a part of our everyday lives, improving health, the environment, industrial, agricultural and energy production. It will ultimately affect society as profoundly as information and communication technologies already have. That's not to mention the convergence with other technologies like engineering, ICT and nanotechnology; the possibilities are endless.

The focus from warfare, military and law enforcement applications to detect biological and chemical agents has turned 180 degrees. This is because research in biosensors has shifted from these applications mentioned, to more peaceful ones such as in the pharmaceutical, medical and environmental fields.

Biosensors are seen as a new enabling technology with great potential to revolutionise the agriculture and food industry in Malaysia. Agricultural and food security, disease treatment, new tools for molecular and cellular biology, new materials for pathogen detection and protection of the environment are but a few examples.

Biosensor technology holds out the possibility that "smart" treatment delivery systems could be activated long before macro symptoms appear. This could take the form of a miniature device implant inserted into an animal and takes regular saliva samples. So even before a fever develops, the integrated sensing, monitoring and controlling system in the device will detect the presence of a disease, then tell the farmer and turn on the treatment delivery system.

Other important applications include the monitoring of river and lake contamination due to the irresponsible dumping of wastes. A biosensor system could continuously monitor our rivers and lakes for excessive heavy metal contaminants.

The National Biosensor Research Group is moving towards a new phase which involves multi-disciplinary fields and joint research with private sectors. Research projects of the group are funded by the Malaysian government via a top down funding plan from the National Biotechnology Division, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Malaysia is looking forward to collaborate with other countries in biosensor research especially in the areas of environment, plant diseases and food quality and safety.

For more information, please contact: Fazlinda Fadzil, Assistant Research Officer, Corporate Communications, MARDI, Serdang, Selangor. Tel: 03-89435924 Fax: 03- 8941664.