Uniaxial Cyclic Cell Stretching Device for Accelerating Cellular Studies.

Cellular response to mechanical stimuli is a crucial factor for maintaining cell homeostasis. The interaction between the extracellular matrix and mechanical stress plays a significant role in organizing the cytoskeleton and aligning cells. Tools that apply mechanical forces to cells and tissues, as well as those capable of measuring the mechanical properties of biological cells, have greatly contributed to our understanding of fundamental mechanobiology. These tools have been extensively employed to unveil the substantial influence of mechanical cues on the development and progression of various diseases. In this report, we present an economical and high-performance uniaxial cell stretching device. This paper reports the detailed operation concept of the device, experimental design, and characterization. The device was tested with MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The experimental results agree well with previously documented morphological changes resulting from stretching forces on cancer cells. Remarkably, our new device demonstrates comparable cellular changes within 30 min compared with the previous 2 h stretching duration. This third-generation device significantly improved the stretching capabilities compared with its previous counterparts, resulting in a remarkable reduction in stretching time and a substantial increase in overall efficiency. Moreover, the device design incorporates an open-source software interface, facilitating convenient parameter adjustments such as strain, stretching speed, frequency, and duration. Its versatility enables seamless integration with various optical microscopes, thereby yielding novel insights into the realm of mechanobiology.

TP5: A Novel Therapeutic Approach Targeting Aberrant and Hyperactive CDK5/p25 for the Treatment of Colorectal Carcinoma.

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is a prevalent cancer worldwide with a high mortality rate. Evidence suggests that increased expression of Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5) contributes to cancer progression, making it a promising target for treatment. This study examined the efficacy of selectively inhibiting CDK5 in colorectal carcinoma using TP5, a small peptide that selectively inhibits the aberrant and hyperactive CDK5/p25 complex while preserving physiological CDK5/p35 functions. We analyzed TP5's impact on CDK5 activity, cell survival, apoptosis, the cell cycle, DNA damage, ATM phosphorylation, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) signaling in mitochondria, in CRC cell lines, both alone and in combination with chemotherapy. We also assessed TP5's efficacy on a xenograft mouse model with HCT116 cells. Our results showed that TP5 decreased CDK5 activity, impaired cell viability and colony formation, induced apoptosis, increased DNA damage, and led to the G1 phase arrest of cell cycle progression. In combination with irinotecan, TP5 demonstrated a synergy by leading to the accumulation of DNA damage, increasing the γH2A.X foci number, and inhibiting G2/M arrest induced by Sn38 treatment. TP5 alone or in combination with irinotecan increased mitochondrial ROS levels and inhibited tumor growth, prolonging mouse survival in the CRC xenograft animal model. These results suggest that TP5, either alone or in combination with irinotecan, is a promising therapeutic option for colorectal carcinoma.

Charge-Reduced Particles via Self-Propelled Electrohydrodynamic Atomization for Drug Delivery Applications.

Electrohydrodynamic atomization (EHDA) provides unparalleled control over the size and production rate of particles from solution. However, conventional methods produce highly charged particles that are not appropriate for inhalation drug delivery. We present a self-propelled EHDA system to address this challenge, a promising one-step platform for generating and delivering charge-reduced particles. Our approach uses a sharp electrode to produce ion wind, which reduces the cumulative charge in the particles and transports them to a target in front of the nozzle. We effectively controlled the morphologies of polymer products created from poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) at various concentrations. Our technique has also been proven safe for bioapplications, as evidenced by the delivery of PVDF particles onto breast cancer cells. The combination of simultaneous particle production and charge reduction, along with its direct delivery capability, makes the self-propelled EHDA a versatile technique for drug delivery applications.

Protein kinase CK2 modulates the activity of Maf-family bZIP transcription factor NRL in rod photoreceptors of mammalian retina.

Maf-family basic motif leucine zipper protein NRL specifies rod photoreceptor cell fate during retinal development and, in concert with homeodomain protein CRX and other regulatory factors, controls the expression of most rod-expressed genes including the visual pigment gene Rhodopsin (Rho). Transcriptional regulatory activity of NRL is modulated by post-translational modifications, especially phosphorylation, and mutations at specific phosphosites can lead to retinal degeneration. During our studies to elucidate NRL-mediated transcriptional regulation, we identified protein kinase CK2 in NRL-enriched complexes bound to Rho promoter-enhancer regions and in NRL-enriched high molecular mass fractions from the bovine retina. The presence of CK2 in NRL complexes was confirmed by co-immunoprecipitation from developing and adult mouse retinal extracts. In vitro kinase assay and bioinformatic analysis indicated phosphorylation of NRL at Ser117 residue by CK2. Co-transfection of Csnk2a1 cDNA encoding murine CK2 with human NRL and CRX reduced the bovine Rho promoter-driven luciferase expression in HEK293 cells and mutagenesis of NRL-Ser117 residue to Ala restored the reporter gene activity. In concordance, overexpression of CK2 in the mouse retina in vivo by electroporation resulted in reduction of Rho promoter-driven DsRed reporter expression as well as the transcript level of many phototransduction genes. Thus, our studies demonstrate that CK2 can phosphorylate Ser117 of NRL. Modulation of NRL activity by CK2 suggests intricate interdependence of transcriptional and signaling pathways in maintaining rod homeostasis.

Wide bandgap semiconductor nanomembranes as a long-term biointerface for flexible, implanted neuromodulator.

Electrical neuron stimulation holds promise for treating chronic neurological disorders, including spinal cord injury, epilepsy, and Parkinson's disease. The implementation of ultrathin, flexible electrodes that can offer noninvasive attachment to soft neural tissues is a breakthrough for timely, continuous, programable, and spatial stimulations. With strict flexibility requirements in neural implanted stimulations, the use of conventional thick and bulky packages is no longer applicable, posing major technical issues such as short device lifetime and long-term stability. We introduce herein a concept of long-lived flexible neural electrodes using silicon carbide (SiC) nanomembranes as a faradic interface and thermal oxide thin films as an electrical barrier layer. The SiC nanomembranes were developed using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process at the wafer level, and thermal oxide was grown using a high-quality wet oxidation technique. The proposed material developments are highly scalable and compatible with MEMS technologies, facilitating the mass production of long-lived implanted bioelectrodes. Our experimental results showed excellent stability of the SiC/silicon dioxide (SiO2) bioelectronic system that can potentially last for several decades with well-maintained electronic properties in biofluid environments. We demonstrated the capability of the proposed material system for peripheral nerve stimulation in an animal model, showing muscle contraction responses comparable to those of a standard non-implanted nerve stimulation device. The design concept, scalable fabrication approach, and multimodal functionalities of SiC/SiO2 flexible electronics offer an exciting possibility for fundamental neuroscience studies, as well as for neural stimulation-based therapies.

Integrated, Transparent Silicon Carbide Electronics and Sensors for Radio Frequency Biomedical Therapy.

The integration of micro- and nanoelectronics into or onto biomedical devices can facilitate advanced diagnostics and treatments of digestive disorders, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers. Recent developments in gastrointestinal endoscopy and balloon catheter technologies introduce promising paths for minimally invasive surgeries to treat these diseases. However, current therapeutic endoscopy systems fail to meet requirements in multifunctionality, biocompatibility, and safety, particularly when integrated with bioelectronic devices. Here, we report materials, device designs, and assembly schemes for transparent and stable cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC)-based bioelectronic systems that facilitate tissue ablation, with the capability for integration onto the tips of endoscopes. The excellent optical transparency of SiC-on-glass (SoG) allows for direct observation of areas of interest, with superior electronic functionalities that enable multiple biological sensing and stimulation capabilities to assist in electrical-based ablation procedures. Experimental studies on phantom, vegetable, and animal tissues demonstrated relatively short treatment times and low electric field required for effective lesion removal using our SoG bioelectronic system. In vivo experiments on an animal model were conducted to explore the versatility of SoG electrodes for peripheral nerve stimulation, showing an exciting possibility for the therapy of neural disorders through electrical excitation. The multifunctional features of SoG integrated devices indicate their high potential for minimally invasive, cost-effective, and outcome-enhanced surgical tools, across a wide range of biomedical applications.

Tuning particle inertial separation in sinusoidal channels by embedding periodic obstacle microstructures.

Inertial microfluidics functions solely based on the fluid dynamics at relatively high flow speed. Thus, channel geometry is the critical design parameter that contributes to the performance of the device. Four basic channel geometries (i.e., straight, expansion-contraction, spiral and serpentine) have been proposed and extensively studied. To further enhance the performance, innovative channel design through combining two or more geometries is promising. This work explores embedding periodic concave and convex obstacle microstructures in sinusoidal channels and investigates their influence on particle inertial focusing and separation. The concave obstacles could significantly enhance the Dean flow and tune the flow range for particle inertial focusing and separation. Based on this finding, we propose a cascaded device by connecting two sinusoidal channels consecutively for rare cell separation. The concave obstacles are embedded in the second channel to adapt its operational flow rates and enable the functional operation of both channels. Polystyrene beads and breast cancer cells (T47D) spiking in the blood were respectively processed by the proposed device. The results indicate an outstanding separation performance, with 3 to 4 orders of magnitude enhancement in purity for samples with a primary cancer cells ratio of 0.01% and 0.001%, respectively. Embedding microstructures as obstacles brings more flexibility to the design of inertial microfluidic devices, offering a feasible new way to combine two or more serial processing units for high-performance separation.

On-demand deterministic release of particles and cells using stretchable microfluidics.

Microfluidic technologies have been widely used for single-cell studies as they provide facile, cost-effective, and high-throughput evaluations of single cells with great accuracy. Capturing single cells has been investigated extensively using various microfluidic techniques. Furthermore, cell retrieval is crucial for the subsequent study of cells in applications such as drug screening. However, there are no robust methods for the facile release of the captured cells. Therefore, we developed a stretchable microfluidic cell trapper for easy on-demand release of cells in a deterministic manner. The stretchable microdevice consists of several U-shaped microstructures to capture single cells. The gap at the bottom edge of the microstructure broadens when the device is stretched along its width. By tuning the horizontal elongation of the device, ample space is provided to release particle/cell sizes of interest. The performance of the stretchable microdevice was evaluated using particles and cells. A deterministic release of particles was demonstrated using a mixture of 15 µm and 20 µm particles. The retrieval of the 15 µm particles and the 20 µm particles was achieved with elongation lengths of 1 mm and 5 mm, respectively. Two different cell lines, T47D breast cancer cells and J774A.1 macrophages, were employed to characterise the cell release capability of the device. The proposed stretchable micro cell trapper provided a deterministic recovery of the captured cells by adjusting the elongation length of the device. We believe that this stretchable microfluidic platform can provide an alternative method to facilely release trapped cells for subsequent evaluation.

Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel.

Microfluidic particle focusing has been a vital prerequisite step in sample preparation for downstream particle separation, counting, detection, or analysis, and has attracted broad applications in biomedical and chemical areas. Besides all the active and passive focusing methods in Newtonian fluids, particle focusing in viscoelastic fluids has been attracting increasing interest because of its advantages induced by intrinsic fluid property. However, to achieve a well-defined focusing position, there is a need to extend channel lengths when focusing micrometer-sized or sub-microsized particles, which would result in the size increase of the microfluidic devices. This work investigated the sheathless viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microfluidic channel. Benefit from the zigzag structure of the channel, the channel length and the footprint of the device can be reduced without sacrificing the focusing performance. In this work, the viscoelastic focusing, including the focusing of 10 µm polystyrene particles, 5 µm polystyrene particles, 5 µm magnetic particles, white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and cancer cells, were all demonstrated. Moreover, magnetophoretic separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles after viscoelastic pre-focusing was shown. This focusing technique has the potential to be used in a range of biomedical applications.

Size-tuneable isolation of cancer cells using stretchable inertial microfluidics.

Inertial microfluidics is a simple, low cost, efficient size-based separation technique which is being widely investigated for rare-cell isolation and detection. Due to the fixed geometrical dimensions of the current rigid inertial microfluidic systems, most of them are only capable of isolating and separating cells with certain types and sizes. Herein, we report the design, fabrication, and validation of a stretchable inertial microfluidic device with a tuneable separation threshold that can be used for heterogenous mixtures of particles and cells. Stretchability allows for the fine-tuning of the critical sorting size, resulting in a high separation resolution that makes the separation of cells with small size differences possible. We validated the tunability of the separation threshold by stretching the length of a microchannel to separate the particle sizes of interest. We also evaluated the focusing efficiency, flow behaviour, and the positions of cancer cells and white blood cells (WBCs) in an elongated channel, separately. In addition, the performance of the device was verified by isolating cancer cells from WBCs which revealed a high recovery rate and purity. The stretchable chip showed promising results in the separation of cells with comparable sizes. Further validation of the chip using whole blood spiked with cancer cells delivered a 98.6% recovery rate with 90% purity. Elongating a stretchable microfluidic chip enables onsite modification of the dimensions of a microchannel leading to a precise tunability of the separation threshold as well as a high separation resolution.

RhoA and Rac1 in Liver Cancer Cells: Induction of Overexpression Using Mechanical Stimulation.

Liver cancer, especially hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is an aggressive disease with an extremely high mortality rate. Unfortunately, no promising markers are currently available for the early diagnosis of this disease. Thus, a reliable biomarker reflecting the early behaviour of the tumour will be valuable for diagnosis and treatment. The Ras homologous (Rho) GTPases, which belong to the small guanosine triphosphate (GTP) binding proteins, have been reported to play an important role in mediating liver cancer based on their important function in cytoskeletal reorganisation. These proteins can be either oncogenic or tumour suppressors. They are also associated with the acquirement of malignant features by cancer cells. The overexpression of RhoA and Rac1, members of the Rho GTPases, have been linked with carcinogenesis and the progression of different types of cancer. In the quest of elucidating the role of mechanical stimulation in the mechanobiology of liver cancer cells, this paper evaluates the effect of stretching on the expression levels of RhoA and Rac1 in different types of liver cancers. It is shown that that stretching liver cancer cells significantly increases the expression levels of RhoA and Rac1 in HCC and cholangiocarcinoma cell lines. We hypothesise that this relatively simple and sensitive method could be helpful for screening biological features and provide suitable treatment guidance for liver cancer patients.

Stretching Induces Overexpression of RhoA and Rac1 GTPases in Breast Cancer Cells.

Rho GTPases are well known for regulating cell morphology and intracellular interactions. They can either be oncogenic or tumor suppressors. However, these proteins are associated with the acquirement of malignant features by cancer cells. It has been reported that the overexpression of protein markers of Rho family members such as RhoA and Rac1 is linked with carcinogenesis and the progression of a variety of human tumors. In this paper, the expression of RhoA and Rac1 activity in various types of breast cancers cell lines is evaluated. These cells are preconditioned by mechanically stretching them to simulate the extracellular physical forces placed upon on cancer cells. It is observed that stretching the cancer cells induces significantly higher expression of RhoA and Rac1 markers when compared to non-stretched cells and stretched control cells in vitro. This stretching strategy helps to detect and quantify the signal when it is too weak to be detected. Furthermore, stretching enhances the assay by leading to overexpression of markers and makes the assay more sensitive. It is hypothesized that this inexpensive and relatively sensitive assay can potentially aid in the development of a diagnostic tool for cancer screening.

Autoantibodies as diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarker: Detection techniques and approaches.

Autoantibodies produced by the patients' own immune systems in response to foreign substances are emerging as an attractive biomarker for early detection of cancer. These serum immunobiomarkers are produced in large quantities despite the presence of very less amount of the corresponding antigens, and thus presenting themselves as a novel class of stable and minimally invasive disease biomarkers especially for cancer diagnosis. Although a plethora of research, including conventional molecular biology-based as well as cutting-edge optical and electrochemical strategies (biosensor), have been conducted to detect autoantibodies, most of these strategies are yet to be readily applicable in the off-laboratory settings at clinics. Herein, we detail the biogenesis, diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic potential of autoantibodies as cancer biomarkers. With the particular emphasis on cutting-edge advances in electrochemistry, optical (surface plasmon resonance) and microfluidics techniques, this review entrusts the unmet needs and challenges of autoantibody detection approaches and provides a future perspective of the presented strategies. We believe this review can potentially guide the researchers towards the development of robust, reliable and sensitive detection strategies for tumor-associated autoantibodies and translation of these biomarkers to real clinical settings for diagnosis and prognosis of cancer.

Stretching cells - An approach for early cancer diagnosis.

Cells express multiple biophysical cues during migration, differentiation, and transformation. Probing and quantifying these biophysical cues could serve as a diagnostic tool for differentiating healthy with neoplastic cells. These biophysical cues may be utilized for diagnostic screening in cancer, as the tumor cells interact with the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Stress and strain induced by the cancer cells and applied to the cancer cells have effects in cancer progression due to its influence in cell migration. It was reported that the introduction of compressive forces on cancerous cells triggers them to undergo apoptosis. In this report, we evaluated the effects of stretching forces on cancer cells by morphological analyses. We observed that cancer cells decrease their roundness (as determined by perimeter: area); increase their length and form filopodia in the initial stretching cycle. However, due to the increasing rigidity of the cells, they undergo apoptosis in later stretching cycles. These morphological changes were unique to breast cancer (MDA-MB-231) cells compared to the non-cancerous control. Elucidating and quantifying these morphological changes is potentially an early cancer diagnostic tool that may predict the propensity of the cancerous cells undergoing a metastatic transformation.

Biophysical properties of cells for cancer diagnosis.

Biophysical properties associated with the microenvironment of a tumor has been recognized as an important modulator for cell behaviour and function. Particularly, tissue rigidity is important during tumor carcinogenesis as it affects the tumor's ability to metastasis. Multiple downstream pathways are affected with a difference in rigidity of the extracellular matrix. The insight into tumor mechanosignalling represents a promising field that may lead to novel approaches for cancer diagnostics. Measurement of rigidity of the extracellular matrix or the tissue is a potential diagnostics approach for cancer detection. Altered extracellular matrix states persist for a long period of time and have lower heterogeneity compared to protein or genetic markers, therefore are more reliable as biomarkers. On the other hand, measurement of different kinase associated proteins or transcripts provide an early insight into potential transition of cells towards metastasis. Co-localization of transcriptional factors like YAP/TAZ provide an insight to determine if the cells are undergoing metastatic changes. This review explains the unique biophysical properties of the tumor microenvironment that present the potential targets for the diagnosis of cancer.

Phosphorylation, Dephosphorylation, and Multiprotein Assemblies Regulate Dynamic Behavior of Neuronal Cytoskeleton: A Mini-Review.

Cellular localization, assembly and abnormal aggregation of neurofilaments depend on phosphorylation. Pathological processes associated with neurodegeneration exhibit aberrant accumulation of microtubule associated aggregated forms of hyperphosphorylated neuronal protein tau in cell bodies. These processes are critical for the disease progression in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In healthy cells, tau is localized in axons. Topographic regulation suggests that whereas the sites of synthesis of kinases and neurofilaments are the cell bodies, and sites of their functional assemblies are axons, phosphorylation/dephosphorylation are the key processes that arrange the molecules at their precise locations. Phosphorylation sites in the dynamic developmental and degenerative processes differ. Not all these processes are well understood. New advancements identify epigenetic factors involved in AD which account for the influence of age-related environment/genome interactions leading to the disease. Progress in proteomics highlights previously found major proteins and adds more to the list of those involved in AD. New key elements of specificity provide determinants of molecular recognition important for the assembly of macromolecular complexes. In this review, we discuss aberrant spatial distribution of neuronal polypeptides observed in neuropathies: aggregation, association with proteins of the neuronal cytoskeleton, and phosphorylation dependent dynamics. Particularly, we emphasize recent advancements in understanding the function and determinants of specific association of molecules involved in Alzheimer's disease with respect to the topographic regulation of phosphorylation in neuronal cytoskeleton and implications for the design of new therapies. Further, we address the role of various filament systems in maintenance of the shape, rigidity and dynamics of the cytoskeleton.

Correction: Gold-loaded nanoporous iron oxide nanocubes: a novel dispersible capture agent for tumor-associated autoantibody analysis in serum.

Correction for 'Gold-loaded nanoporous iron oxide nanocubes: a novel dispersible capture agent for tumor-associated autoantibody analysis in serum' by Sharda Yadav et al., Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 8805-8814.

Gold-Loaded Nanoporous Ferric Oxide Nanocubes with Peroxidase-Mimicking Activity for Electrocatalytic and Colorimetric Detection of Autoantibody.

The enzyme-mimicking activity of iron oxide based nanostructures has provided a significant advantage in developing advanced molecular sensors for biomedical and environmental applications. Herein, we introduce the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activity of gold-loaded nanoporous ferric oxide nanocubes (Au-NPFe2O3NC) for the development of a molecular sensor with enhanced electrocatalytic and colorimetric (naked eye) detection of autoantibodies. The results showed that Au-NPFe2O3NC exhibits enhanced peroxidase-like activity toward the catalytic oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tertamethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of H2O2 at room temperature (25 °C) and follows the typical Michaelis-Menten kinetics. The autoantibody sensor based on this intrinsic property of Au-NPFe2O3NC resulted in excellent detection sensitivity [limit of detection (LOD) = 0.08 U/mL] and reproducibility [percent relative standard deviation (% RSD) = <5% for n = 3] for analyzing p53-specific autoantibodies using electrochemical and colorimetric (naked eye) readouts. The clinical applicability of the sensor has been tested in detecting p53-specific autoantibody in plasma obtained from patients with epithelial ovarian cancer high-grade serous subtype (EOCHGS, number of samples = 2) and controls (benign, number of samples = 2). As Au-NPFe2O3NC possess high peroxidase-like activity for the oxidation of TMB in the presence of H2O2 [TMB is a common chromogenic substrate for HRP in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs)], we envisage that our assay could find a wide range of application in developing ELISA-based sensing approaches in the fields of medicine (i.e., detection of other biomarkers the same as p53 autoantibody), biotechnology, and environmental sciences.

Gold-loaded nanoporous iron oxide nanocubes: a novel dispersible capture agent for tumor-associated autoantibody analysis in serum.

Autoantibodies are produced against tumor associated antigens (TAAs) long before the appearance of any symptoms and thus can serve as promising, non-invasive biomarkers for early diagnosis of cancer. Current conventional methods for autoantibody detection are highly invasive and mostly provide diagnosis in the later stages of cancer. Herein we report a new electrochemical method for early detection of p53 autoantibodies against colon cancer using a strategy that combines the strength of gold-loaded nanoporous iron oxide nanocube (Au@NPFe2O3NC)-based capture and purification while incorporating the inherent simplicity, inexpensive, and portable nature of the electrochemical and naked-eye colorimetric readouts. After the functionalisation of Au@NPFe2O3NC with p53 antigens, our method utilises a two-step strategy that involves (i) magnetic capture and isolation of autoantibodies using p53/Au@NPFe2O3NC as 'dispersible nanocapture agents' in serum samples and (ii) subsequent detection of autoantibodies through a peroxidase-catalyzed reaction on a commercially available disposable screen-printed electrode or naked-eye detection in an Eppendorf tube. This method has demonstrated a good sensitivity (LOD = 0.02 U mL-1) and reproducibility (relative standard deviation, %RSD = <5%, for n = 3) for detecting p53 autoantibodies in serum and has also been successfully applied to analyse a small cohort of clinical samples obtained from colorectal cancer. We believe that the highly inexpensive, rapid, sensitive, and specific nature of our assay could potentially aid in the development of an early diagnostic tool for cancer and related diseases.

An electrochemical method for sensitive and rapid detection of FAM134B protein in colon cancer samples.

Despite the excellent diagnostic applications of the current conventional immunoassay methods such as ELISA, immunostaining and Western blot for FAM134B detection, they are laborious, expensive and required a long turnaround time. Here, we report an electrochemical approach for rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of FAM134B protein in biological (colon cancer cell extracts) and clinical (serum) samples. The approach utilises a differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) in the presence of the [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- redox system to quantify the FAM134B protein in a two-step strategy that involves (i) initial attachment of FAM134B antibody on the surface of extravidin-modified screen-printed carbon electrode, and (ii) subsequent detection of FAM134B protein present in the biological/clinical samples. The assay system was able to detect FAM134B protein at a concentration down to 10 pg µL-1 in phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.4) with a good inter-assay reproducibility (% RSD = <8.64, n = 3). We found excellent sensitivity and specificity for the analysis of FAM134B protein in a panel of colon cancer cell lines and serum samples. Finally, the assay was further validated with ELISA method. We believe that our assay could potentially lead a low-cost alternative to conventional immunological assays for target antigens analysis in point-of-care applications.