09655 IUPAC Gold Book - biological recognition element 10.1351/goldbook.09655 09655 current synonyms: biochemical receptor, biocomponent (at a biosensor) 1 Component of biological origin that translates information from the biochemical domain into a physical or chemical domain with a defined selectivity. The main purpose of the biological recognition element is to provide a biosensor or other system with a high degree of selectivity for the kind of quantity to be measured. Typical biological recognition elements include biocatalysts, immune receptors, nucleic acids, and others. Biologically-derived recognition elements, such as oligopeptides, oligosaccharides, and peptide nucleic acids are also of great interest. A biocatalytic recognition element is based on a biocatalytic reaction. Five types of biocatalyst are commonly used: (a) Enzyme (mono-or multi-enzyme): the most common and well-developed recognition system; (b) whole cells (micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, eukaryotic cells or yeast) or cell organelles or particles (mitochondria, cell walls); and (c) tissue (plant or animal tissue slice). (d) Ribozymes, and (e) DNAzymes. A biocomplexing or bioaffinity recognition element is based on the binding interaction of the analyte with macromolecules or organised molecular assemblies that have either been isolated from their original biological environment or engineered. PAC, 2018, 90, 1121. 'Terminology of bioanalytical methods (IUPAC Recommendations 2018)' on page 1127 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2016-1120) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09655/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09655/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/09655/plain Citation: 'biological recognition element' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.09655 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-04-18T03:52:53+00:00