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Tony Turner has held a range of commercial positions continuously since 1982, commencing with Project Director for MediSense's (Abbott) in vitro diagnostics programme.  In this role he led the team that invented, designed and developed the world's most successful type of biosensor, the mediated amperometric enzyme electrode for glucose for home use.  He continues this commitment to innovation today as a Director and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for Pelikan Technologies in Palo Alto.  In his twenty eight years managing and directing research at Cranfield he numbers amongst his clients all the major diagnostic companies in the world and numerous other small and large enterprises.  In addition to advising companies and governments worldwide in the general area of analytical biotechnology, he has served as an expert witness in patent litigations on three continents.

He played a key role in coordinating research activities in medical and environmental sensors in the European Union and led concerted actions and thematic networks since 1988.  He founded the  World Congress on Biosensors for Elsevier in 1990 and has chaired it since then.

Professor Turner's name is synonymous with the field of biosensors.  Formerly Principal of Cranfield University at Silsoe, he returned to full-time research in February 2006 as the Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology in Cranfield Health, a new school of Cranfield University. In December 2007, he took the role of Commercial Director for Cranfield Health and became Director, Cranfield Ventures, with responsibility for leveraging the University's IP via spinouts and licensing.

He has held a personal chair in Biosensor Technology at Cranfield since 1989 and has a number of honorary and visiting positions elsewhere including a Visiting Professor at the University of Florence and Honorary Consultant Clinical Scientist at the Gloucestershire NHS Trust.  He is an International Advisory Board Member for the  National Science and Technology Development Agency, Thailand and Tokyo University of Technology, Japan.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1996, invited to Fellowship of the Institute of Biology in 1999 and the Institute of Physics in 2006.  He was awarded a higher doctorate (DSc) for his exceptional contribution to biosensors by the University of Kent in 2001 and an Honorary DSc by the University of Bedfordshire in 2008, where he served as a Governor for six years.  He was admitted to the USA National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for his work on glucose sensors, environmental monitors and synthetic recognition molecules.

Professor Turner has over 600 publications and patents in the field of biosensors and biomimetic sensors.  He has won a number of prestigious scientific awards worth over £100,000 in personal prize money and presented well over 400 keynote and plenary lectures at a range of international meetings and honour ceremonies around the world.  He has edited the principal journal in the field,  Biosensors & Bioelectronics, since its foundation in 1985 and edited the first textbook on Biosensors in 1987.

New reactive polymer for protein immobilisation on sensor surfaces.
Kyprianou, D., Guerreiro, A.R., Chianella, I., Piletska, E.V., Fowler, S.A., Karim, K., Whitcombe, M.J., Turner, A.P.F. and Piletsky, S.A.
Biosensors & Bioelectronics, 2009, 24, 1365-1371.

Principles of Bacterial Detection: Biosensors, Recognition Receptors and Microsystems.
Zourob, M., Elwary, S. and Turner, A.P.F.
Springer, New York, 2008, ISBN 978-0-387-75112-2.