Recent progress of M13 virus-based chemical and biological sensing

Discriminating the minute content of chemicals both in precise and concise way is to use core technique for detecting water pollution. Recently a novel virus-based sensor system functionalized by M13 bacte-riophage-based structure got great attention. This system can detect various chemicals in superior sensitivity and selectivity. The filamentous and consistent shape of M13 bacteriophage can be ordered by self-assembly technique in high established form. This allows M13 bacteriophage as a template to build homogeneous distribution and permeable network structures of inorganic nanostructures under mild conditions. Phage display, genetic engineering technique of M13 bacteriophage, is another strong feature of M13 bacteriophage as a functional building block. The numerous possibility of genetic modification of M13 bacteriophage is definitely a key feature, and we have seen only the tip of an iceberg of it so far. Here, we review the very recent progress in the application of M13 bacteriophage self-assembly structures to a sensor system and discuss about M13 bacteriophage technology of our future.