Fast and Sensitive Detection of Nucleic Acid

Dear Colleagues,

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has highlighted the significance of nucleic acid detection techniques. Testing available ad libitum and early diagnosis are essential to identify the disease and provide prompt treatments, and therefore, a sufficiently large supply of nucleic acid test capacity is critical to screen suspected cases in a timely manner. Moreover, nucleic acids also emerge as promising biomarkers for cancer diagnostics. Owing to the clinical significance of DNA/RNA biomarkers, this Special Issue mainly focuses on updated knowledge about the effectiveness of the new technique in fast and sensitive nucleic acid detection. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique is widely used in clinical laboratories worldwide for nucleic acid detection. Although this technique provides high sensitivity for DNA/RNA, it suffers from slow speed and poor specificity. A variety of new techniques, such as fluorescence biosensors, electrochemical biosensors, single-molecule toolkits, and isothermal amplification techniques, have shown great potential in fast and sensitive detection of nucleic acids. Furthermore, methods for improving the procedure of the clinical diagnostics of nucleic acids are also important. Both original papers and comprehensive reviews that focus on this topic are welcome to publish in open access form. This Special Issue can be a platform to share your own experiences and challenges in developing methods or improving conventional techniques for reliable detection of a variety of nucleic acid biomarkers, such as circulating cancer biomarkers, single-nucleotide variation, as well as pathogen DNA and RNA.

Dr. Xin Su
Guest Editor

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