Special Issue "Aptamer-Based Sensors"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Dipankar Sen
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6
Website: http://www.sfu.ca/mbb/faculty/sen/Sen_Lab/index.html
E-Mail: sen@sfu.ca
Interests: DNA; RNA; ribozymes; deoxyribozymes; in vitro selection; catalysis; charge transfer; biosensors; photochemistry

Dear Colleagues,

Antibodies have been the traditional sensing platform underlying sensor design for the detection of biomedically and environmentally important “analytes”. However, in recent years, “aptamers”—DNA and RNA molecules with antibody-like properties of high-affinity and -specificity binding to analytes of interest—have started to assert themselves in the latest generations of sensors. In a number of ways, aptamers make excellent substitutes for antibodies: they are chemically stable, easily and inexpensively synthesized, and do not elicit a significant immune response if used in vivo. However, the isolation of a high-quality aptamer against a designated analyte does not in itself guarantee its usefulness as a biosensor; there is also the necessity for an effective transduction mechanism, such that analyte binding generates a quantifiable output (often optical or electronic) signal. This special issue of Sensors focuses on the variety of elegant approaches that have recently been taken to generate aptamer-based sensors—a new paradigm in analyte detection.

Prof. Dr. Dipankar Sen
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs).

• biosensor
• aptamer
• analyte
• SELEX
• transduction
• fluorescence
• absorbance
• electronics