Exchangeable Immobilized Enzyme Reactor (EIMER)

Abstract

Since Flow-Injection Analysis (FIA) was introduced by Ruzicka and Hansenin 1975, a large numberofapplications using biological active reactors have been discribed. These reactors are often designedas fixed bed reactors with bio-material held between two nets or immobilized in tubes or on membrane surfaces. These designs allow the use of the enzyme’s naturalcatalytic activities. When denaturation, fowling or inhibition occure, however, thereislittle chance of reactivating the enzyme and the entire reactor must be discarded. Ourintent to design a fully automated biosensor for pesticide detection using enzyme inhibition made it necessary to develop methods for exchanging immobilized enzyme between two runs of analysis.