Optical Biosensor Technology for the Future of Medical Diagnostics and Therapy

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 8102

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor

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Guest Editor
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Interests: nanophotonics; biosensing; resonant imaging; microscopy; holography

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

An early diagnosis of diseases has demonstrated to improve the life expectancy and quality of patients, which is especially relevant for those diseases where prevention and continuous screening is currently not accessible due to a lack of efficient and cost-effective diagnostic technology.

Adequate sensitivity, reliability and accuracy together with a high throughput are fundamental requirements for the next generation of biomedical devices and immunosensors. Nanotechnologies have remarkably improved sensing performance. Moreover, their ease of integration in portable and compact systems is facilitating their translation in clinical settings, as confirmed by an evident increase in nanotechnology-based platforms in pre-clinical and clinical studies during the last decade.

Within this context, optical biosensors are emerging as a powerful tool, due to their high sensitivity and specificity, real-time operation, and ease of use and integration with electronic circuitry for readout systems, minimizing the need for expert users and expensive and bulk equipment. Remarkable advances have already been achieved with optical sensors within medical practice, but there is still ample space for improvement of the design, fabrication and detection methods, from the early validation in the lab toward their clinical application.

This Special Issue will focus on the latest advances in optical devices and systems targeted at medical applications to improve the early detection of diseases, accuracy in diagnoses and efficiency in therapies and drug development. Both review articles and research papers are solicited, covering the following areas:

  • Novel optical devices and systems to improve the sensitivity, accuracy and throughput of medical diagnostics and therapeutics;
  • Advances in design, fabrication, characterization and data processing methods for the development of the next generation of optical biosensors;
  • Use of optical methods and techniques to overcome the limitations of the current systems used in the clinical environment, facilitating their use by non-expert users with high-access and cost-efficient solutions.

Dr. Donato Conteduca
Dr. Isabel Barth
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • optical biosensors
  • nanophotonics
  • biomedical photonics
  • integrated biosensors
  • personalized medicine
  • medical diagnostics
  • point-of-care devices

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

22 pages, 1159 KiB  
Review
Allergen Microarrays and New Physical Approaches to More Sensitive and Specific Detection of Allergen-Specific Antibodies
by Pavel Sokolov, Irina Evsegneeva, Alexander Karaulov, Alyona Sukhanova and Igor Nabiev
Biosensors 2024, 14(7), 353; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14070353 - 20 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5224
Abstract
The prevalence of allergic diseases has increased tremendously in recent decades, which can be attributed to growing exposure to environmental triggers, changes in dietary habits, comorbidity, and the increased use of medications. In this context, the multiplexed diagnosis of sensitization to various allergens [...] Read more.
The prevalence of allergic diseases has increased tremendously in recent decades, which can be attributed to growing exposure to environmental triggers, changes in dietary habits, comorbidity, and the increased use of medications. In this context, the multiplexed diagnosis of sensitization to various allergens and the monitoring of the effectiveness of treatments for allergic diseases become particularly urgent issues. The detection of allergen-specific antibodies, in particular, sIgE and sIgG, is a modern alternative to skin tests due to the safety and efficiency of this method. The use of allergen microarrays to detect tens to hundreds of allergen-specific antibodies in less than 0.1 mL of blood serum enables the transition to a deeply personalized approach in the diagnosis of these diseases while reducing the invasiveness and increasing the informativeness of analysis. This review discusses the technological approaches underlying the development of allergen microarrays and other protein microarrays, including the methods of selection of the microarray substrates and matrices for protein molecule immobilization, the obtainment of allergens, and the use of different types of optical labels for increasing the sensitivity and specificity of the detection of allergen-specific antibodies. Full article
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17 pages, 4143 KiB  
Review
Advances of Fluorescent Nanodiamond Platforms for Intracellular and On-Chip Biosensing
by Taisuke Shimada, Yasuyuki Ueda, Yoshinobu Baba and Hiroshi Yukawa
Biosensors 2024, 14(7), 340; https://doi.org/10.3390/bios14070340 - 12 Jul 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2354
Abstract
Intracellular and extracellular sensing of physical and chemical variables is important for disease diagnosis and the understanding of cellular biology. Optical sensing utilizing fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) is promising for probing intracellular and extracellular variables owing to their biocompatibility, photostability, and sensitivity to physicochemical [...] Read more.
Intracellular and extracellular sensing of physical and chemical variables is important for disease diagnosis and the understanding of cellular biology. Optical sensing utilizing fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) is promising for probing intracellular and extracellular variables owing to their biocompatibility, photostability, and sensitivity to physicochemical quantities. Based on the potential of FNDs, we outlined the optical properties, biocompatibility, surface chemistry of FNDs and their applications in intracellular biosensing. This review also introduces biosensing platforms that combine FNDs and lab-on-a-chip approaches to control the extracellular environment and improve sample/reagent handling and sensing performance. Full article
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