Book excerpt: "There is an increasing interest in research and applications of biosensors and bio-compatability in relation to environmental protection, food and medical safety, implants, early detection of diseases and pollutant detection. This book describes how to characterise amino acids, protein or bacterial strain adsorption on metal and oxide surfaces by using infrared spectroscopy, in a vacuum, in the air or in an aqueous medium. Features description of the principles, experimental setups and parameter interpretation, and the theory for several advanced IR-based techniques for interface characterisation Contains examples which demonstrate the capacity, potential and limits of the IR techniques Helps finding the most adequate mode of analysis."--Publisher.