Microfluidic Biosensing Technologies for Point-of-Care Applications

A special issue of Biosensors (ISSN 2079-6374). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors and Healthcare".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2024) | Viewed by 6701

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Bioengineeering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Interests: microfluidics; droplet microfluidics; detection; sorting; surface acoustic waves; imaging; raman spectroscopy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
1. Sphere Fluidics Ltd., Babraham, Cambridgeshire CB22 3AT, UK
2. Riccarton Campus, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
Interests: acoustofluidics; microfluidics; droplet microfluidics; microfabrication; biosensors; parasitology; impedance cytometry; image analysis

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Guest Editor
Development Engineer, Biocrucible, Emmanuel Building, Chesterford Research Park, Essex CB10 1XL, UK
Interests: microfluidics; point-of-care diagnostics; dielectrophoresis; microfabrication; cell sorting; nanoparticles

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Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
Interests: microfluidics; lab on a chip; multiphase flow; particle microfluidics; point of care diagnosis; food and water monitoring technology; biosensor; sample preparation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microfluidics has grown significantly since the birth of the field in the 1980s and has already revolutionized a variety of medical industry sectors. The explosive growth of start-up companies in the field, combined with the entry of industrial giants into the microfluidic area, has also led to the growth of the microfluidic market over the past few years. Despite this, the field remains young, growing, and evolving.

Microfluidics involves the science and technology surrounding the manipulation of fluids at the micro- or nano-scale. What microfluidics offers is simple yet highly beneficial: nanoliter-scale fluid consumption with minimal operation times. Standard laboratory procedures such as pipetting, mixing, centrifugation, and incubation require expensive and bulky equipment, large amounts of consumables, and high-maintenance laboratories while being relatively slow processes. Integrated microfluidic biosensing platforms would not only offer sample and reagent reduction, but also faster reaction times, higher sensitivity, and overall cost reduction compared to standard laboratory equipment. Importantly, such systems also have the capacity for parallelization, high throughput analysis, and real-time control and monitoring, which altogether help to broaden the possibilities for applications in clinical diagnostics.

Recent developments in microfluidics have helped researchers working in industries and educational institutes to adopt some of these platforms for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. This Biosensors Special Issue aims to collate the latest advancements in the fields of microfluidic biosensing technologies and present challenges, possible solutions, and successful demonstrations related to the translation of this technology for POC diagnostic applications. We also wish to disseminate details of the variety of fabrication techniques required for developing microfluidic-integrated biosensors intended for use in POC diagnostics in the medical industry.

You are cordially invited to submit research papers, short communications, and review articles to this Special Issue in Biosensors titled “Microfluidic Biosensor Platform Development for Point-of-Care Applications”.

Dr. Muhsincan Sesen
Dr. John McGrath
Dr. Ameya Vaidya
Dr. Pouya Rezai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • biosensors
  • microfluidics
  • droplet microfluidics
  • point-of-care diagnostics
  • high-throughput screening
  • detection
  • signal processing
  • image processing
  • sorting
  • microfabrication

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 4120 KiB  
Article
Rapid Microfluidic Immuno-Biosensor Detection System for the Point-of-Care Determination of High-Sensitivity Urinary C-Reactive Protein
by Szu-Jui Chen, Song-Yu Lu, Chin-Chung Tseng, Kuan-Hsun Huang, To-Lin Chen and Lung-Ming Fu
Biosensors 2024, 14(6), 283; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14060283 - 30 May 2024
Viewed by 1592
Abstract
A microfluidic immuno-biosensor detection system consisting of a microfluidic spectrum chip and a micro-spectrometer detection device is presented for the rapid point-of-care (POC) detection and quantification of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in urine. The detection process utilizes a highly specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [...] Read more.
A microfluidic immuno-biosensor detection system consisting of a microfluidic spectrum chip and a micro-spectrometer detection device is presented for the rapid point-of-care (POC) detection and quantification of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in urine. The detection process utilizes a highly specific enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method, in which capture antibodies and detection antibodies are pre-deposited on the substrate of the microchip and used to form an immune complex with the target antigen. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) is added as a marker enzyme, followed by a colorimetric reaction using 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB). The absorbance values (a.u.) of the colorimetric reaction compounds are measured using a micro-spectrometer device and used to measure the corresponding hs-CRP concentration according to the pre-established calibration curve. It is shown that the hs-CRP concentration can be determined within 50 min. In addition, the system achieves recovery rates of 93.8–106.2% in blind water samples and 94.5–104.6% in artificial urine. The results showed that the CRP detection results of 41 urine samples from patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) were highly consistent with the conventional homogeneous particle-enhanced turbidimetric immunoassay (PETIA) method’s detection results (R2 = 0.9910). The experimental results showed its applicability in the detection of CRP in both urine and serum. Overall, the results indicate that the current microfluidic ELISA detection system provides an accurate and reliable method for monitoring the hs-CRP concentration in point-of-care applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Biosensing Technologies for Point-of-Care Applications)
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13 pages, 5518 KiB  
Article
Microfluidic Sensor Based on Cell-Imprinted Polymer-Coated Microwires for Conductometric Detection of Bacteria in Water
by Shiva Akhtarian, Ali Doostmohammadi, Daphne-Eleni Archonta, Garrett Kraft, Satinder Kaur Brar and Pouya Rezai
Biosensors 2023, 13(10), 943; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios13100943 - 20 Oct 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1830
Abstract
The rapid, inexpensive, and on-site detection of bacterial contaminants using highly sensitive and specific microfluidic sensors is attracting substantial attention in water quality monitoring applications. Cell-imprinted polymers (CIPs) have emerged as robust, cost-effective, and versatile recognition materials with selective binding sites for capturing [...] Read more.
The rapid, inexpensive, and on-site detection of bacterial contaminants using highly sensitive and specific microfluidic sensors is attracting substantial attention in water quality monitoring applications. Cell-imprinted polymers (CIPs) have emerged as robust, cost-effective, and versatile recognition materials with selective binding sites for capturing whole bacteria. However, electrochemical transduction of the binding event to a measurable signal within a microfluidic device to develop easy-to-use, compact, portable, durable, and affordable sensors remains a challenge. For this paper, we employed CIP-functionalized microwires (CIP-MWs) with an affinity towards E. coli and integrated them into a low-cost microfluidic sensor to measure the conductometric transduction of CIP–bacteria binding events. The sensor comprised two CIP-MWs suspended perpendicularly to a PDMS microchannel. The inter-wire electrical resistance of the microchannel was measured before, during, and after exposure of CIP-MWs to bacteria. A decline in the inter-wire resistance of the sensor after 30 min of incubation with bacteria was detected. Resistance change normalization and the subsequent analysis of the sensor’s dose-response curve between 0 to 109 CFU/mL bacteria revealed the limits of detection and quantification of 2.1 × 105 CFU/mL and 7.3 × 105 CFU/mL, respectively. The dynamic range of the sensor was 104 to 107 CFU/mL where the bacteria counts were statistically distinguishable from each other. A linear fit in this range resulted in a sensitivity of 7.35 μS per CFU/mL. Experiments using competing Sarcina or Listeria cells showed specificity of the sensor towards the imprinted E. coli cells. The reported CIP-MW-based conductometric microfluidic sensor can provide a cost-effective, durable, portable, and real-time solution for the detection of pathogens in water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Biosensing Technologies for Point-of-Care Applications)
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Review

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39 pages, 7541 KiB  
Review
AI-Assisted Detection of Biomarkers by Sensors and Biosensors for Early Diagnosis and Monitoring
by Tomasz Wasilewski, Wojciech Kamysz and Jacek Gębicki
Biosensors 2024, 14(7), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14070356 - 22 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2556
Abstract
The steady progress in consumer electronics, together with improvement in microflow techniques, nanotechnology, and data processing, has led to implementation of cost-effective, user-friendly portable devices, which play the role of not only gadgets but also diagnostic tools. Moreover, numerous smart devices monitor patients’ [...] Read more.
The steady progress in consumer electronics, together with improvement in microflow techniques, nanotechnology, and data processing, has led to implementation of cost-effective, user-friendly portable devices, which play the role of not only gadgets but also diagnostic tools. Moreover, numerous smart devices monitor patients’ health, and some of them are applied in point-of-care (PoC) tests as a reliable source of evaluation of a patient’s condition. Current diagnostic practices are still based on laboratory tests, preceded by the collection of biological samples, which are then tested in clinical conditions by trained personnel with specialistic equipment. In practice, collecting passive/active physiological and behavioral data from patients in real time and feeding them to artificial intelligence (AI) models can significantly improve the decision process regarding diagnosis and treatment procedures via the omission of conventional sampling and diagnostic procedures while also excluding the role of pathologists. A combination of conventional and novel methods of digital and traditional biomarker detection with portable, autonomous, and miniaturized devices can revolutionize medical diagnostics in the coming years. This article focuses on a comparison of traditional clinical practices with modern diagnostic techniques based on AI and machine learning (ML). The presented technologies will bypass laboratories and start being commercialized, which should lead to improvement or substitution of current diagnostic tools. Their application in PoC settings or as a consumer technology accessible to every patient appears to be a real possibility. Research in this field is expected to intensify in the coming years. Technological advancements in sensors and biosensors are anticipated to enable the continuous real-time analysis of various omics fields, fostering early disease detection and intervention strategies. The integration of AI with digital health platforms would enable predictive analysis and personalized healthcare, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in related scientific fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microfluidic Biosensing Technologies for Point-of-Care Applications)
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