Single-Cell Nanometric Coating Towards Whole-Cell-Based Biodevices and Biosensors

Living cells with different coatings, like polyelectrolytes, biomolecules, metal nanoparticles or oxides, have more functions compared with the original state, which would be beneficial to many potential applications. Amongst these applications, whole-cell biosensors/devices are commonly used for high-throughput disease diagnosis, detection of toxicities, biomedical imaging, environmental monitoring or microbial fuel cells. As a key factor of the fabrication of whole cell biosensors/devices, the techniques for cell immobilization and cell viability have obvious influence on the sensitivity, stability and reproducibility. Cell coatings not only can be helpful to maintain the cell viability, but also can offer multifunction to facilitate the cell immobilization or orientation in the construction of biosensors/devices. Therefore, in this review, we are going to discuss various coating methods and materials, with the focus on their applications in the whole-cell based biosensors and bio-devices.