The revolution of PDMS microfluidics in cellular biology.

Microfluidics is revolutionizing the way research on cellular biology has been traditionally conducted. The ability to control the cell physicochemical environment by adjusting flow conditions, while performing cellular analysis at single-cell resolution and high-throughput, has made microfluidics the ideal choice to replace traditional in vitro models. However, such a revolution only truly started with the advent of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as a microfluidic structural material and soft-lithography as a rapid manufacturing technology. Indeed, before the "PDMS age," microfluidic technologies were: costly, time-consuming and, more importantly, accessible only to specialized laboratories and users. The simplicity of molding PDMS in various shapes along with its inherent properties (transparency, biocompatibility, and gas permeability) has spread the applications of innovative microfluidic devices to diverse and important biological fields and clinical studies. This review highlights how PDMS-based microfluidic systems are innovating pre-clinical biological research on cells and organs. These devices were able to cultivate different cell lines, enhance the sensitivity and diagnostic effectiveness of numerous cell-based assays by maintaining consistent chemical gradients, utilizing and detecting the smallest number of analytes while being high-throughput. This review will also assist in identifying the pitfalls in current PDMS-based microfluidic systems to facilitate breakthroughs and advancements in healthcare research.

Recent Advances in 3D Printing of Biomedical Sensing Devices.

Additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing, is a rapidly evolving technique that allows for the fabrication of functional materials with complex architectures, controlled microstructures, and material combinations. This capability has influenced the field of biomedical sensing devices by enabling the trends of device miniaturization, customization, and elasticity (i.e., having mechanical properties that match with the biological tissue). In this paper, the current state-of-the-art knowledge of biomedical sensors with the unique and unusual properties enabled by 3D printing is reviewed. The review encompasses clinically important areas involving the quantification of biomarkers (neurotransmitters, metabolites, and proteins), soft and implantable sensors, microfluidic biosensors, and wearable haptic sensors. In addition, the rapid sensing of pathogens and pathogen biomarkers enabled by 3D printing, an area of significant interest considering the recent worldwide pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, is also discussed. It is also described how 3D printing enables critical sensor advantages including lower limit-of-detection, sensitivity, greater sensing range, and the ability for point-of-care diagnostics. Further, manufacturing itself benefits from 3D printing via rapid prototyping, improved resolution, and lower cost. This review provides researchers in academia and industry a comprehensive summary of the novel possibilities opened by the progress in 3D printing technology for a variety of biomedical applications.

Ultrarapid and ultrasensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 patients via a 3D-printed nanomaterial-based biosensing platform.

Rapid detection of antibodies during infection and after vaccination is critical for the control of infectious outbreaks, understanding immune response, and evaluating vaccine efficacy. In this manuscript, we evaluate a simple ultrarapid test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 patients, which gives quantitative results (i.e., antibody concentration) in 10-12 s using a previously reported nanomaterial-based three-dimensional (3D)-printed biosensing platform. This platform consists of a micropillar array electrode fabricated via 3D printing of aerosolized gold nanoparticles and coated with nanoflakes of graphene and specific SARS-CoV-2 antigens, including spike S1, S1 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and nucleocapsid (N). The sensor works on the principle of electrochemical transduction, where the change of sensor impedance is realized by the interactions between the viral proteins attached to the sensor electrode surface and the antibodies. The three sensors were used to test samples from 17 COVID-19 patients and 3 patients without COVID-19. Unlike other serological tests, the 3D sensors quantitatively detected antibodies at a concentration as low as picomole within 10-12 s in human plasma samples. We found that the studied COVID-19 patients had higher concentrations of antibodies to spike proteins (RBD and S1) than to the N protein. These results demonstrate the enormous potential of the rapid antibody test platform for understanding patients' immunity, disease epidemiology and vaccine efficacy, and facilitating the control and prevention of infectious epidemics.

N protein-based ultrasensitive SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection in seconds via 3D nanoprinted, microarchitected array electrodes.

Rapid detection of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 is critical for COVID-19 diagnostics, epidemiological research, and studies related to vaccine evaluation. It is known that the nucleocapsid (N) is the most abundant protein of SARS-CoV-2 and can serve as an excellent biomarker due to its strong immunogenicity. This paper reports a rapid and ultrasensitive 3D biosensor for quantification of COVID-19 antibodies in seconds via electrochemical transduction. This sensor consists of an array of three-dimensional micro-length-scale electrode architecture that is fabricated by aerosol jet 3D printing, which is an additive manufacturing technique. The micropillar array is coated with N proteins via an intermediate layer of nano-graphene and is integrated into a microfluidic channel to complete an electrochemical cell that uses antibody-antigen interaction to detect the antibodies to the N protein. Due to the structural innovation in the electrode geometry, the sensing is achieved in seconds, and the sensor shows an excellent limit of detection of 13 fm and an optimal detection range of 100 fm to 1 nm. Furthermore, the sensor can be regenerated at least 10 times, which reduces the cost per test. This work provides a powerful platform for rapid screening of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 after infection or vaccination.

Breaking the barrier to biomolecule limit-of-detection via 3D printed multi-length-scale graphene-coated electrodes.

Sensing of clinically relevant biomolecules such as neurotransmitters at low concentrations can enable an early detection and treatment of a range of diseases. Several nanostructures are being explored by researchers to detect biomolecules at sensitivities beyond the picomolar range. It is recognized, however, that nanostructuring of surfaces alone is not sufficient to enhance sensor sensitivities down to the femtomolar level. In this paper, we break this barrier/limit by introducing a sensing platform that uses a multi-length-scale electrode architecture consisting of 3D printed silver micropillars decorated with graphene nanoflakes and use it to demonstrate the detection of dopamine at a limit-of-detection of 500 attomoles. The graphene provides a high surface area at nanoscale, while micropillar array accelerates the interaction of diffusing analyte molecules with the electrode at low concentrations. The hierarchical electrode architecture introduced in this work opens the possibility of detecting biomolecules at ultralow concentrations.

Application of Functionalized Graphene Oxide Based Biosensors for Health Monitoring: Simple Graphene Derivatives to 3D Printed Platforms.

Biosensors hold great potential for revolutionizing personalized medicine and environmental monitoring. Their construction is the key factor which depends on either manufacturing techniques or robust sensing materials to improve efficacy of the device. Functional graphene is an attractive choice for transducing material due to its various advantages in interfacing with biorecognition elements. Graphene and its derivatives such as graphene oxide (GO) are thus being used extensively for biosensors for monitoring of diseases. In addition, graphene can be patterned to a variety of structures and is incorporated into biosensor devices such as microfluidic devices and electrochemical and plasmonic sensors. Among biosensing materials, GO is gaining much attention due to its easy synthesis process and patternable features, high functionality, and high electron transfer properties with a large surface area leading to sensitive point-of-use applications. Considering demand and recent challenges, this perspective review is an attempt to describe state-of-the-art biosensors based on functional graphene. Special emphasis is given to elucidating the mechanism of sensing while discussing different applications. Further, we describe the future prospects of functional GO-based biosensors for health care and environmental monitoring with a focus on additive manufacturing such as 3D printing.

Sensing of COVID-19 Antibodies in Seconds via Aerosol Jet Nanoprinted Reduced-Graphene-Oxide-Coated 3D Electrodes.

Rapid diagnosis is critical for the treatment and prevention of diseases. An advanced nanomaterial-based biosensing platform that detects COVID-19 antibodies within seconds is reported. The biosensing platform is created by 3D nanoprinting of three-dimensional electrodes, coating the electrodes by nanoflakes of reduced-graphene-oxide (rGO), and immobilizing specific viral antigens on the rGO nanoflakes. The electrode is then integrated with a microfluidic device and used in a standard electrochemical cell. When antibodies are introduced on the electrode surface, they selectively bind with the antigens, changing the impedance of the electrical circuit which is detected via impedance spectroscopy. Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 spike S1 protein and its receptor-binding-domain (RBD) are detected at a limit-of-detection of 2.8 × 10-15 and 16.9 × 10-15 m, respectively, and read by a smartphone-based user interface. The sensor can be regenerated within a minute by introducing a low-pH chemistry that elutes the antibodies from the antigens, allowing successive sensing of test samples using the same sensor. Sensing of S1 and RBD antibodies is specific, which cross-reacts neither with other antibodies such as RBD, S1, and nucleocapsid antibody nor with proteins such as interleukin-6. The proposed sensing platform could also be useful to detect biomarkers for other infectious agents such as Ebola, HIV, and Zika.

Dual-modality microfluidic biosensor based on nanoengineered mesoporous graphene hydrogels.

A dual-modality microfluidic biosensor is fabricated using a mesoporous nanostructured cysteine-graphene hydrogel for the quantification of human cardiac myoglobin (cMb). In this device, the nanoengineered mesoporous l-cysteine-graphene (Cys-RGO) hydrogel performs the role of a dual-modality sensing electrode for the measurements conducted using differential pulse voltammetry and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) techniques. High surface reactivity, mesoporous structure and fast electron transfer combined with good reaction kinetics of the graphene hydrogel in this device indicate excellent performance for the detection of human cardiac myoglobin in serum samples. In electrochemical modality, this microfluidic chip exhibits a high sensitivity of 196.66 µA ng-1 mL cm-2 for a linear range of concentrations (0.004-1000 ng mL-1) with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 4 pg mL-1 while the SPR technique shows a LOD of 10 pg mL-1 for cMb monitoring in the range 0.01-1000 ng mL-1. The intra-assay coefficient of variation was less than 8% for standard samples and 9% for real serum samples, respectively. This Cys-RGO hydrogel-based microfluidic SPR chip allows real-time dynamic tracking of cMb molecules with a high association constant of 4.93 ± 0.2 × 105 M-1 s-1 and a dissociation constant of 1.37 ± 0.08 × 10-4 s-1, self-verification, reduced false readout, and improved detection reliability.

Continuous Monitoring of Soil Nitrate Using a Miniature Sensor with Poly(3-octyl-thiophene) and Molybdenum Disulfide Nanocomposite.

There is an unmet need for improved fertilizer management in agriculture. Continuous monitoring of soil nitrate would address this need. This paper reports an all-solid-state miniature potentiometric soil sensor that works in direct contact with soils to monitor nitrate-nitrogen (NO3--N) in soil solution with parts-per-million (ppm) resolution. A working electrode is formed from a novel nanocomposite of poly(3-octyl-thiophene) and molybdenum disulfide (POT-MoS2) coated on a patterned Au electrode and covered with a nitrate-selective membrane using a robotic dispenser. The POT-MoS2 layer acts as an ion-to-electron transducing layer with high hydrophobicity and redox properties. The modification of the POT chain with MoS2 increases both conductivity and anion exchange, while minimizing the formation of a thin water layer at the interface between the Au electrode and the ion-selective membrane, which is notorious for solid-state potentiometric ion sensors. Therefore, the use of POT-MoS2 results in an improved sensitivity and selectivity of the working electrode. The reference electrode comprises a screen-printed silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electrode covered by a protonated Nafion layer to prevent chloride (Cl-) leaching in long-term measurements. This sensor was calibrated using both standard and extracted soil solutions, exhibiting a dynamic range that includes all concentrations relevant for agricultural applications (1-1500 ppm NO3--N). With the POT-MoS2 nanocomposite, the sensor offers a sensitivity of 64 mV/decade for nitrate detection, compared to 48 mV/decade for POT and 38 mV/decade for MoS2. The sensor was embedded into soil slurries where it accurately monitored nitrate for a duration of 27 days.

An optofluidic metasurface for lateral flow-through detection of breast cancer biomarker.

The rapid growth of point-of-care tests demands for biosensors with high sensitivity and small size. This paper demonstrates an optofluidic metasurface that combines silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanophotonics and nanofluidics to realize a high-performance, lateral flow-through biosensor. The metasurface is made of a periodic array of silicon nanoposts on an SOI substrate, and functionalized with specific receptor molecules. Bonding of a polydimethylsiloxane slab directly onto the surface results in an ultracompact biosensor, where analyte solutions are restricted to flow only in the space between the nanoposts. No flow exists above the nanoposts. This sensor design overcomes the issue with diffusion-limited detection of many other biosensors. The lateral flow-through feature, in conjunction with high-Q resonance modes associated with optical bound states of the metasurface, offers an improved sensitivity to subtle molecule-bonding induced changes in refractive index. The device exhibits a resonance mode around 1550 nm wavelength and provides an index sensitivity of 720 nm/RIU. Biosensing is conducted to detect the epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (ErbB2), a protein biomarker for early-stage breast cancer screening, by monitoring resonance wavelength shifts in response to specific analyte-ligand binding events at the metasurface. The limit of detection of the device is 0.7 ng mL-1 for ErbB2.

Integrated dual-modality microfluidic sensor for biomarker detection using lithographic plasmonic crystal.

This paper reports an integrated dual-modality microfluidic sensor chip, consisting of a patterned periodic array of nanoposts coated with gold (Au) and graphene oxide (GO), to detect target biomarker molecules in a limited sample volume. The device generates both electrochemical and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) signals from a single sensing area of Au-GO nanoposts. The Au-GO nanoposts are functionalized with specific receptor molecules, serving as a spatially well-defined nanostructured working electrode for electrochemical sensing, as well as a nanostructured plasmonic crystal for SPR-based sensing via the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. High sensitivity of the electrochemical measurement originates from the presence of the nanoposts on the surface of the working electrode where radial diffusion of redox species occurs. Complementarily, the SPR detection allows convenient tracking of dynamic antigen-antibody interactions, to describe the association and dissociation phases occurring at the sensor surface. The soft-lithographically formed nanoposts provide high reproducibility of the sensor response to epidermal growth factor receptor (ErbB2) molecules even at a femtomolar level. Sensitivities of the electrochemical measurements to ErbB2 are found to be 20.47 µA µM-1 cm-2 in a range from 1 fM to 0.1 µM, and those of the SPR measurements to be 1.35 nm µM-1 in a range from 10 pM to 1 nM, and 0.80 nm µM-1 in a range from 1 nM to 0.1 µM. The integrated dual-modality sensor offers higher sensitivity (through higher surface area and diffusions from nanoposts for electrochemical measurements), as well as the dynamic measurements of antigen-antibody bindings (through the SPR measurement), while operating simultaneously in a same sensing area using the same sample volume.

Microporous Nanocomposite Enabled Microfluidic Biochip for Cardiac Biomarker Detection.

This paper demonstrates an ultrasensitive microfluidic biochip nanoengineered with microporous manganese-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite for detection of cardiac biomarker, namely human cardiac troponin I. In this device, the troponin sensitive microfluidic electrode consisted of a thin layer of manganese-reduced graphene oxide (Mn3O4-RGO) nanocomposite material. This nanocomposite thin layer was formed on surface of a patterned indium tin oxide substrate after modification with 3-aminopropyletriethoxysilane and was assembled with a polydimethylsiloxane-based microfluidic system. The nanoengineered microelectrode was functionalized with antibodies specific to cardiac troponin I. The uniformly distributed flower-shaped nanostructured manganese oxide (nMn3O4) onto RGO nanosheets offered large surface area for enhanced loading of antibody molecules and improved electrochemical reaction at the sensor surface. This microfluidic device showed an excellent sensitivity of log [87.58] kΩ/(ng mL-1)/cm2 for quantification of human cardiac troponin I (cTnI) molecules in a wide detection range of 0.008-20 ng/mL. This device was found to have high stability, high reproducibility, and minimal interference with other biomarkers cardiac troponin C and T, myoglobin, and B-type natriuretic peptide. These advantageous features of the Mn3O4-RGO nanocomposite, in conjunction with microfluidic integration, enabled a promising microfluidic biochip platform for point-of-care detection of cardiac troponin.

Integrated Microfluidic Flow-Through Microbial Fuel Cells.

This paper reports on a miniaturized microbial fuel cell with a microfluidic flow-through configuration: a porous anolyte chamber is formed by filling a microfluidic chamber with three-dimensional graphene foam as anode, allowing nutritional medium to flow through the chamber to intimately interact with the colonized microbes on the scaffolds of the anode. No nutritional media flow over the anode. This allows sustaining high levels of nutrient utilization, minimizing consumption of nutritional substrates, and reducing response time of electricity generation owing to fast mass transport through pressure-driven flow and rapid diffusion of nutrients within the anode. The device provides a volume power density of 745 µW/cm3 and a surface power density of 89.4 µW/cm2 using Shewanella oneidensis as a model biocatalyst without any optimization of bacterial culture. The medium consumption and the response time of the flow-through device are reduced by 16.4 times and 4.2 times, respectively, compared to the non-flow-through counterpart with its freeway space volume six times the volume of graphene foam anode. The graphene foam enabled microfluidic flow-through approach will allow efficient microbial conversion of carbon-containing bioconvertible substrates to electricity with smaller space, less medium consumption, and shorter start-up time.

In situ integration of graphene foam-titanium nitride based bio-scaffolds and microfluidic structures for soil nutrient sensors.

It is challenging to integrate porous graphene foam (GF) and GF-based nanocomposites into microfluidic channels and even create microfluidic structures within these materials. This is because their irregular interior pore shape and geometry, rough exterior surface, and relatively large material thickness make it difficult to perform conventional photolithography and etching. This challenge has largely hindered the potential of using GF-based materials in microfluidics-based sensors. Here we present a simple approach to create well-defined flow-through channels within or across the GF-based materials, using a liquid-phase photopolymerization method. This method allows embedding of a nanocomposite-based scaffold of GF and titanium nitride nanofibers (GF-TiN NFs) into a channel structure, to realize flow-through microfluidic electrochemical sensors for detecting nitrate ions in agricultural soils. The unique GF-TiN nanocomposite provides high electrochemical reactivity, high electron transfer rate, improved loading capacity of receptor biomolecules, and large surface area, serving as an efficient electrochemical sensing interface with the help of immobilized specific enzyme molecules. The microfluidic sensor provides an ultralow limit of detection of 0.01 mg L-1, a wide dynamic range from 0.01 to 442 mg L-1, and a high sensitivity of 683.3 µA mg-1 L cm-2 for nitrate ions in real soil solution samples. The advantageous features of the GF-TiN nanocomposite, in conjunction with the in situ integration approach, will enable a promising microfluidic sensor platform to monitor soil ions for nutrient management towards sustainable agriculture.

Microfluidic Immuno-Biochip for Detection of Breast Cancer Biomarkers Using Hierarchical Composite of Porous Graphene and Titanium Dioxide Nanofibers.

We report on a label-free microfluidic immunosensor with femtomolar sensitivity and high selectivity for early detection of epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (EGFR2 or ErbB2) proteins. This sensor utilizes a uniquely structured immunoelectrode made of porous hierarchical graphene foam (GF) modified with electrospun carbon-doped titanium dioxide nanofibers (nTiO2) as an electrochemical working electrode. Due to excellent biocompatibility, intrinsic surface defects, high reaction kinetics, and good stability for proteins, anatase nTiO2 are ideal for electrochemical sensor applications. The three-dimensional and porous features of GF allow nTiO2 to penetrate and attach to the surface of the GF by physical adsorption. Combining GF with functional nTiO2 yields high charge transfer resistance, large surface area, and porous access to the sensing surface by the analyte, resulting in new possibilities for the development of electrochemical immunosensors. Here, the enabling of EDC-NHS chemistry covalently immobilized the antibody of ErbB2 (anti-ErbB2) on the GF-nTiO2 composite. To obtain a compact sensor architecture, the composite working electrode was designed to hang above the gold counter electrode in a microfluidic channel. The sensor underwent differential pulse voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to quantify breast cancer biomarkers. The two methods had high sensitivities of 0.585 µA µM(-1) cm(-2) and 43.7 kΩ µM(-1) cm(-2) in a wide concentration range of target ErbB2 antigen from 1 × 10(-15) M (1.0 fM) to 0.1 × 10(-6) M (0.1 µM) and from 1 × 10(-13) M (0.1 pM) to 0.1 × 10(-6) M (0.1 µM), respectively. Utilization of the specific recognition element, i.e., anti-ErbB2, results in high specificity, even in the presence of identical members of the EGFR family of receptor tyrosine kinases, such as ErbB3 and ErbB4. Many promising applications in the field of electrochemical detection of chemical and biological species will derive from the integration of the porous GF-nTiO2 composite into microfluidic devices.

Mesoporous Few-Layer Graphene Platform for Affinity Biosensing Application.

A label-free, highly reproducible, sensitive, and selective biosensor is proposed using antiapolipoprotein B 100 (AAB) functionalized mesoporous few-layer reduced graphene oxide and nickel oxide (rGO-NiO) nanocomposite for detection of low density lipoprotein (LDL) molecules. The formation of mesoporous rGO-NiO composite on indium tin oxide conductive electrode has been accomplished via electrophoretic technique using colloidal suspension of rGO sheets and NiO nanoparticles. This biosensor shows good stability obtained by surface conjugation of antibody AAB molecules with rGO-NiO matrix by EDC-NHS coupling chemistry. The defect-less few layer rGO sheets, NiO nanoparticles (nNiO) and formation of nanocomposite has been confirmed by Raman mapping, electron microscopic studies, X-ray diffraction, and electrochemical techniques. The synthesized rGO-NiO composite is mesoporous dominated with a small percentage of micro and macroporous structure as is evident by the results of Brunauer-Emmett-Teller experiment. Further, the bioconjugation of AAB with rGO-NiO has been investigated by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy studies. The kinetic studies for binding of antigen-antibody (LDL-AAB) and analytical performance of this biosensor have been evaluated by the impedance spectroscopic method. This biosensor exhibits an excellent sensitivity of 510 Ω (mg/dL)(-1) cm(-2) for detection of LDL molecules and is sensitive to 5 mg/dL concentration of LDL in a wide range of 0-130 mg/dL. Thus, this fabricated biosensor is an efficient and highly sensitive platform for the analysis of other antigen-antibody interactions and biomolecules detection.

A biofunctionalized quantum dot-nickel oxide nanorod based smart platform for lipid detection.

A reagent-free, low-cost and sensitive immunosensor has been fabricated using anti-apolipoprotein B (AAB) conjugated l-cysteine in situ capped cadmium sulfide quantum dots (CysCdS QDs) bound to nickel oxide nanorods (nNiO) for detection of low density lipoprotein (LDL) molecules in human serum samples. The structural and morphological properties of AAB conjugated CysCdS QDs and nNiO have been investigated using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and UV-visible techniques. In this immunosensor, the synthesized NiO nanorods act as mediators that allow the direct electron transfer due to their channeling effect resulting in a mediator-free biosensor. This mediator-free CysCdS-NiO based immunosensor shows improved characteristics such as a good sensitivity of 32.08 µA (mg dl-1)-1 cm-2 compared to that based on nNiO (1.42 µA (mg dl-1)-1 cm-2) alone for detection of lipid (LDL) molecules over a wide concentration range, 5-120 mg dl-1 (0.015-0.36 µM). The kinetic analysis yields an association constant (Ka) of 3.24 kM-1 s-1, indicating that the antibody conjugated CysCdS-NiO platform has a strong affinity towards lipid molecules. The excellent electron transport properties of the CysCdS-NiO nanocomposite in this immunosensor reveal that it provides an efficient platform for routine quantification of LDL molecules in real samples.

A Label-Free Photoluminescence Genosensor Using Nanostructured Magnesium Oxide for Cholera Detection.

Nanomaterial-based photoluminescence (PL) diagnostic devices offer fast and highly sensitive detection of pesticides, DNA, and toxic agents. Here we report a label-free PL genosensor for sensitive detection of Vibrio cholerae that is based on a DNA hybridization strategy utilizing nanostructured magnesium oxide (nMgO; size >30 nm) particles. The morphology and size of the synthesized nMgO were determined by transmission electron microscopic (TEM) studies. The probe DNA (pDNA) was conjugated with nMgO and characterized by X-ray photoelectron and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic techniques. The target complementary genomic DNA (cDNA) isolated from clinical samples of V. cholerae was subjected to DNA hybridization studies using the pDNA-nMgO complex and detection of the cDNA was accomplished by measuring changes in PL intensity. The PL peak intensity measured at 700 nm (red emission) increases with the increase in cDNA concentration. A linear range of response in the developed PL genosensor was observed from 100 to 500 ng/µL with a sensitivity of 1.306 emi/ng, detection limit of 3.133 ng/µL and a regression coefficient (R(2)) of 0.987. These results show that this ultrasensitive PL genosensor has the potential for applications in the clinical diagnosis of cholera.

Tyrosinase conjugated reduced graphene oxide based biointerface for bisphenol A sensor.

We have fabricated a nanocomposite of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets and chitosan (Cn) polymer based highly sensitive electrochemical biosensor for detection of bisphenol A (BPA). The two-dimensional structure and chemical functionality of rGO and Cn provide an excellent electrode surface for loading of tyrosinase enzyme molecules. This rGO-Cn nanocomposite is capable of effectively utilizing their superior conductivity, larger effective surface area and superior electrochemical performance due to its synergistic effect between rGO and Cn. The structural, morphological and electrochemical characterizations of nanocomposite sheets have been performed by electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, FTIR and Potentiostat/Galvanostat techniques. This fabricated biosensor is sensitive to nanomolar (0.74 nM) concentration of BPA and detection time is 10s compared to conventional BPA ELISA kit (0.3 µg/L and 2.5h). The rGO-Cn based biosensor exhibits a higher sensitivity (83.3 µA nM(-1) cm(-2)), wider linearity (0.01-50 µM) with good selectivity towards BPA. This biosensor is capable to quantify real sample of BPA using packaged drinking water bottles. This rGO-Cn nanocomposite sheets emerges as a potential electrode material for detection of other estrogenic substrate.

Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor conjugated mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers for breast cancer diagnostics.

We report the fabrication of an efficient, label-free, selective and highly reproducible immunosensor with unprecedented sensitivity (femto-molar) to detect a breast cancer biomarker for early diagnostics. Mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers (ZnOnFs) are synthesized by electrospinning technique with a fiber diameter in the range of 50-150 nm. Fragments of ZnOnFs are electrophoretically deposited on an indium tin oxide glass substrate and conjugated via covalent or electrostatic interactions with a biomarker (anti-ErbB2; epidermal growth factor receptor 2). Oxygen plasma treatment of the carbon doped ZnOnFs generates functional groups (-COOH, -OH, etc.) that are effective for the conjugation of anti-ErbB2. ZnOnFs without plasma treatment that conjugate via electrostatic interactions were also tested for comparison. Label-free detection of the breast cancer biomarker by this point-of-care device is achieved by an electrochemical impedance technique that has high sensitivity (7.76 kΩ µM(-1)) and can detect 1 fM (4.34 × 10(-5) ng mL(-1)) concentration. The excellent impedimetric response of this immunosensor provides a fast detection (128 s) in a wide detection test range (1.0 fM-0.5 µM). The oxy-plasma treated ZnOnF immunoelectrode shows a higher association constant (404.8 kM(-1) s(-1)) indicating a higher affinity towards the ErbB2 antigen compared to the untreated ZnOnF immunoelectrode (165.6 kM(-1) s(-1)). This sensor is about an order of magnitude more sensitive than the best demonstrated in the literature based on different nanomaterials and about three orders of magnitude better than the ELISA standard for breast cancer biomarker detection. This proposed point-of-care cancer diagnostic offers several advantages, such as higher stability, rapid monitoring, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, etc., and should prove to be useful for the detection of other bio- and cancer markers.