The Applications of Nanosensors in Biology and Food

Dear Colleagues,

Nanomaterial-based biosensors represent the integration of material science, molecular engineering, chemistry, and biotechnology and can considerably improve the sensitivity and specificity of biomolecule detection and have great potential in applications such as molecular recognition, food and environment monitoring, clinical analysis, and pathogen diagnosis. Nanomaterial-based devices have several benefits in sensitivity and specificity over sensors made from traditional materials. Nanosensors can have increased specificity because they operate at a similar scale to natural biological processes, allowing functionalization with chemical and biological molecules, with recognition events that cause detectable physical changes. Nanosensors can also potentially be integrated with nanoelectronics to add native processing capability to the nanosensor.

Several nanomaterials have been explored regarding the mechanism of their electronic and mechanical properties for their use in improved biological signaling and transduction mechanisms. Some such materials that are widely employed include nanotubes, nanowires, nanorods, nanoparticles, and thin films made from crystalline matter. These can be as diverse as using amperometric devices for the enzymatic detection of glucose to using quantum dots as fluorescence agents for the detection of binding and even using bioconjugated nanomaterials for specific biomolecular detection. The nanomaterials reported include colloidal nanoparticles that can be used to conjugate with antibodies for immunosensing and immunolabeling application; these materials can also be used to enhance electron microscopic detections. Further, metal-based nanoparticles are very excellent materials for electronic and optical applications that can be efficiently used for the detection of nucleic acid sequences through the exploitation of their optoelectronic properties. Various nanomaterials have been discussed to analyze their properties and recent applications in biosensors. Research regarding nanobiosensor technology has prompted the construction of novel devices and a constant increase in relation to the various nanomaterials with the aim implement them either into transducers or receptors operation parts, so as to enhance their multidetection capability and sensitivity. Nanomaterials contribute to either the biorecognition element or the transducer or both. Nanosensors, nanoprobes, and other nano systems have revolutionized the fields of chemical and biological analysis to enable the rapid analysis of multiple toxic and harmful substances and in many cases in vivo.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring into focus this important research area and advances in applications in biology and foods. It discusses various categories of nanosensors, including mechanical, thermal, optical, magnetic, chemical, and biological, and presents an introductory survey of nanotechnology. It describes the building blocks of nanosensors, such as nanoparticles, semiconductors, quantum dots, and CNTs and examines the different resources involved in nanosensor fabrication and characterization. It covers cutting-edge applications of state-of-the-art nanosensors in medicine, food technology, the environment, chemistry, biotechnology, and information processing.

Prof. Dr. Dimitrios P. Nikolelis
Guest Editor

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• biosensors
• nanotechnology
• food and biology applications