[en] A biosensor is a device that uses biological materials to monitor the presence of specific chemicals in an area. Traditional methods of volatile detection used by the law enforcement agencies and rescue teams consist in the canine olfaction. This concept of using dogs to detect specific substances is quite old. However, dogs have some limitations such as cost of training, time of conditioning. Thus, the possibility of using other organisms as biosensors including rats, dolphins, honeybees, parasitic wasps in detection of explosives, narcotics and cadavers has been developed. But, insects have several advantages unshared by mammalians. Insects are very sensitive, cheap to produce and can be conditioned with impressive speed for a specific chemical-detection task. Moreover, insects might be a preferred sensing method in scenarios that are deemed too dangerous to use mammalian. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the biosensors used in forensic sciences
[Université de Liège - ULg > Sciences agronomiques > Entomologie fonctionnelle et évolutive >]
