In this talk I will describe the characteristic properties of molecular electronic materials and devices and discuss their potential to influence and be influenced by knowledge and understanding at the biosciences interface. The discovery of conjugated polymer electroluminescence in 1989 led to the founding of Cambridge Display Technology Ltd in 1992. Excellent progress has been made in developing this technology and first commercial products are already on the market, with strong prospects for a range of display applications. Building on the successes to date, there is now a growing interest in other devices, including field effect transistors, solar cells, photodetectors, optical amplifiers and lasers. These devices offer exciting potential for use in bioanalysis, either as replacements for conventional light sources and detectors or as sensing elements in their own right. I will discuss some of the approaches under study and introduce Molecular Vision Ltd, a new start up company that is developing instrumented lab-on-a-chip structures that have integrated light sources and detectors.