Circuit and method for biasing a plate-shaped sensor element (2) made of doped semiconductor material and having a first resp. second excitation contact (C, A) connected to a first resp. second excitation node (Cn, An), and a first resp. second sense contact (B, D) connected to a first resp. second sense node (Bn, Dn). The plate-shaped sensor element is electrically isolated from a substrate or well (5) by means of a first PN-junction. The method comprises: a) applying to the first excitation node (Cn) a predefined first current (Iex) generated by a first current source (11); b) applying to the second excitation node (An) a second current (I′ex) generated by a controllable second source (12); c) controlling the second source (12) by means of a negative feedback loop based on a comparison between a value representative for a common mode voltage (Vcm) of the voltages (VB, VD) of the sense nodes (Bn, Dn) and a predefined reference voltage (Vref), such that the common mode voltage (Vcm) is substantially equal to the reference voltage (Vref).