Magnetic Techniques for Molecular Diagnostics and Analysis of Biomolecules
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomaterials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 April 2022) | Viewed by 7569
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Driven by rising demands for fast and specific results in non-standard environments, in-vitro diagnostics is moving more and more away from centralized laboratories towards point of need applications. At the same time, in biomedical research there is a growing demand for techniques that allow us to study the biophysical properties of single molecules, viruses or cells, including, for example, the determination of mechanical properties (e.g. elasticity or torsion modules) or the investigation of binding strengths.
Magnetic techniques offer exciting possibilities to address these challenges. They rely on the manipulation and detection of biofunctionalized magnetic particles, which—depending on the application—are employed either as labels or probes. The most striking advantage in this regard is the ability to exert forces or torques onto magnetic particles by externally applied magnetic fields. This enables us, for example, to magnetically separate specific biomolecules from a bulk solution (‘magnetic washing’), to draw specific biomolecules towards certain regions (e.g. embedded sensors) in a fluid environment, to agitate magnetic particles and look at their dynamic response for biomolecular detection directly in the bulk sample solution, or to investigate biophysical properties by applying controlled forces or torques via bound magnetic probes. Furthermore, due to the fact that there is no significant magnetic background signal present in biomedical applications, magnetic labels can be detected in very low concentrations, thereby enabling highly competitive detection limits in molecular diagnostics.
To illustrate the numerous advantages offered by applying magnetic techniques to both the detection and biophysical investigation of biomolecules, viruses or cells, we kindly invite you to submit your manuscript(s) to this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.
Dr. Jorg Schotter
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- Magnetic particle
- Magnetic force/torque
- Homogeneous/heterogeneous magnetic biosensor
- Magnetic transducer
- Point of need/Point of care
- Molecular diagnostics/in-vitro diagnostics
- Single molecule/virus/cell investigation
