Advancements on Field Detection Based on Nucleic Acid Amplification
A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Analytical Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 24
Special Issue Editors
Interests: food authenticity; species identification; DNA; LAMP; PCR; isothermal amplification;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: fluorescence sensors
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Nucleic acid amplification has played a significant role in the advancements made within genetic research and medical diagnostics and has received considerable attention in recent years. It is important in clinical diagnostics, biomolecular analysis, food safety, and environmental monitoring. qPCR is the gold standard method for quantifying target DNA due to its high sensitivity, sequence specificity, excellent quantitative accuracy, reproducibility, and versatility among various applications.
However, limitations of qPCR include expensive instrumentation and lengthy assay times, which has stimulated the need for alternative methods. As a result, a number of isothermal amplification techniques such as NASBA, SDA, RCA, LAMP, HDA, and RPA have been developed. Till now, these techniques are emerging as an outstanding method for nucleic acid testing due to the rapid turnaround and simplified isothermal operational conditions. They have been extensively employed in many fields of scientific endeavour, such as early diagnosis of infectious diseases, food safety monitoring, and crop diseases prevention.
Traditional methods for isothermal amplification results interpretation, while accurate, are often time-consuming and labour-intensive due to the involvement of advanced analyzers and professional technicians. Instead, visual detection is advantageous due to the simplicity, cost-effectiveness, portability, and suitability for on-site detection. Currently, various detection methods, including colorimetric indicators and fluorescence, can be used to visualize amplification results.
This special topic calls for research and review papers in the field of visual methods leveraged for on-site detection.
Dr. Xiong Xiong
Prof. Dr. Yi Li
Dr. Libin Wang
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- nucleic acid
- isothermal amplification
- visual detection
- colorimetric detection
- fluorescence-based detection
- point-of-care test
- field detection
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