Advanced Biosensors for Screening Medicinal Natural Products
A special issue of Biosensors (ISSN 2079-6374). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors and Healthcare".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 1075
Editors
Interests: label-free biosensing and imaging; single-molecule imaging; cell analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Natural products, ranging from large biomolecules such as peptides to small molecules like artemisinin, represent an essential resource for drug development and a prolific source of future therapeutics. However, medicinal natural products often exist at low concentrations and exhibit dynamic changes in composition, posing significant challenges for their detection and characterization. Label-free detection approaches offer a promising solution by enabling analysis under native conditions while minimally perturbing the local environment, thereby preserving the integrity of the target molecules. These attributes make label-free techniques particularly well-suited for screening medicinal natural products within complex biological matrices. Moreover, label-free biosensors provide a powerful tool for in situ screening within isolation platforms, delivering real-time feedback that facilitate the dynamic optimization of separation protocols. In recent years, substantial advances have been made in label-free detection technologies. Notably, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with label-free biosensors has significantly enhanced the ability to interpret the rich, multidimensional data generated by these methods, improving both precision and throughput. Despite this progress, there remains a growing demand for the development of novel label-free sensing strategies that are cost-effective, user-friendly and compatible with widely used platforms such as commercial microscopy and existing label-free biosensors for natural product screening. In parallel, the incorporation of tailored AI models continues to be a critical frontier for advancing the field. This Special Issue, entitled “Screening Medicinal Natural Products under Native Conditions”, aims to highlight recent advances in the development of highly sensitive label-free biosensors and their applications in the detection, analysis and screening of natural products, with particular emphasis on approaches that preserve native conditions. We invite original research articles and comprehensive reviews that push the boundaries of label-free biosensor technologies and contribute to the evolving landscape of medicinal natural product discovery.
Dr. Pengfei Zhang
Prof. Dr. Ying Zhao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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Keywords
- natural products
- drug screening
- native conditions
- biosensors
- artificial intelligence
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