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Prospects and Challenges of Biosensors towards Diagnostics of the Diseases and Health Monitoring

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Special Issue Information
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Published Papers

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B1: Biosensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 9287

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ahmed H. Jalal

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Guest Editor

Department of Computer Science, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT 84058, USA
Interests: biosensors; VOC sensors; fiber optic sensors; bioelectronics and instrumentations; IoT and sensor data analytics; fuel cells; thin-film fabrication; nanomaterials; electrochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Meer Safa

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Guest Editor

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33174, USA
Interests: lithium batteries; nanoscale materials; thin films; polymers; smart materials; energy storage materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For a timely evaluation of one’s health condition, biosensors are capable of providing accurate measurements, fast assessments, and specific and real-time diagnoses. Several properties of biosensors, such as sensitivity, selectivity, stability, reversibility, linearity, detection time, and limit of detection, play a major role in achieving accurate, fast, and specific diagnoses of health conditions. These sensor properties enable a physician to accurately diagnose a specific disease or physiological condition by detecting a specific biomarker and initiating the required therapy to prevent further aggravation of the disease. However, existing biosensors have limitations in providing real-time information due to their lack of accuracy and precision in measurements.

To overcome such limitations, there are ongoing and widespread research efforts toward the design, fabrication, calibration, and identification of biomarkers by biosensors with accuracy, reliability, and rapid detection in real time. To address the challenges in this field, this Special Issue invites high-quality submissions with significant scientific and technical contributions related to the key topics of biosensors as follows:

Design, simulation, and modeling of biosensors for the sensitive, accurate, specific and rapid diagnoses of health conditions;
Smart materials used for energy conversions from biosensing technologies;
Self-assembled nanomaterials with durability, stability and biocompatibility, focusing on the fabrication of biosensors;
Prospects and challenges of biodegradable materials for biosensing applications;
Signal processing and data analytics techniques to improve the calibration of biosensors;
Prospects and challenges of flexible electronics in biosensing applications;
Data analytics and machine or deep learning techniques for the precision diagnosis of the diseases or health monitoring;
Wearable biosensors or volatile compound sensors for occupational health monitoring;
Lab-on-a-chip biosensing platforms for the precision diagnostics of the diseases and health monitoring.

We cordially invite you to submit your research to this Special Issue in the form of research articles, communications, and review articles that focus on the aforementioned topics.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ahmed H. Jalal
Dr. Meer Safa
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

biosensors
biomarkers
biofluids
wearables
smart materials
thin-film fabrication
design and modeling
precision diagnostics
lab-on-a-chip

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3562 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Designing a Simple Electrochemical Genosensor for the Detection of Urinary PCA3, a Prostate Cancer Biomarker

by Meriem Mokni, Amal Tlili, Yassine Khalij, Ghada Attia, Chouki Zerrouki, Wissem Hmida, Ali Othmane, Ali Bouslama, Asma Omezzine and Najla Fourati

Micromachines 2024, 15(5), 602; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15050602 - 29 Apr 2024

Viewed by 318

Abstract

This study investigates the feasibility of a simple electrochemical detection of Prostate Cancer Antigen 3 (PCA3) fragments extracted from patients’ urine, using a thiolated single-strand DNA probe immobilized on a gold surface without using a redox probe. To enhance the PCA3 recognition process, we conducted a comparative analysis of the hybridization location using two thiolated DNA probes: Probe 1 targets the first 40 bases, while Probe 2 targets the fragment from bases 47 to 86. Hybridization with PCA3 followed, using square wave voltammetry. The limit of detection of the designed genosenors were of the order of (2.2 ng/mL), and (1.6 ng/mL) for Probes 1 and 2, respectively, and the subsequent sensitivities were of the order of (0.09 ± 0.01) µA⁻¹ · µg⁻¹ · mL and (0.10 ± 0.01) µA⁻¹ · µg⁻¹ · mL. Specificity tests were then conducted with the sensor functionalized with Probe 2, as it presents better analytical performances. The electrochemical results indicate that the designed sensor can clearly discriminate a complementary target from a non-complementary one. A further modeling of the calibration curves with the Power Law/Hill model indicates that the dissociation constant increases by one order of magnitude, confirming the ability of the designed sensor to perfectly discriminate complementary targets from non-complementary ones. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prospects and Challenges of Biosensors towards Diagnostics of the Diseases and Health Monitoring)

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13 pages, 3078 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Comparison of Circular and Rectangular-Shaped Electrodes for Electrical Impedance Myography Measurements on Human Upper Arms

by Mohammad A. Ahad, Somen Baidya and Md. Nurul Tarek

Micromachines 2023, 14(6), 1179; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi14061179 - 31 May 2023

Viewed by 1249

Abstract

Electrical Impedance Myography (EIM) is a painless, noninvasive approach for assessing muscle conditions through the application of a high-frequency, low-intensity current to the muscle region of interest. However, besides muscle properties, EIM measurements vary significantly with changes in some other anatomical properties such as subcutaneous skin-fat (SF) thickness and muscle girth, as well as non-anatomical factors, such as ambient temperature, electrode shape, inter-electrode distance, etc. This study has been conducted to compare the effects of different electrode shapes in EIM experiments, and to propose an acceptable configuration that is less dependent on factors other than the cellular properties of the muscle. Initially, a finite element model with two different kinds of electrode shapes, namely, rectangular (the conventional shape) and circular (the proposed shape) was designed for a subcutaneous fat thickness ranging from 5 mm to 25 mm. The study concludes, based on the FEM study, that replacing the conventional electrodes with our proposed electrodes can decrease the variation in EIM parameters due to changes in skin-fat thickness by 31.92%. EIM experiments on human subjects with these two kinds of electrode shapes validate our finite element simulation results, and show that circular electrodes can improve EIM effectiveness significantly, irrespective of muscle shape variation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prospects and Challenges of Biosensors towards Diagnostics of the Diseases and Health Monitoring)

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Review

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47 pages, 12921 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceReview

Recent Progress and Challenges of Implantable Biodegradable Biosensors

by Fahmida Alam, Md Ashfaq Ahmed, Ahmed Hasnain Jalal, Ishrak Siddiquee, Rabeya Zinnat Adury, G M Mehedi Hossain and Nezih Pala

Micromachines 2024, 15(4), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15040475 - 30 Mar 2024

Viewed by 1995

Abstract

Implantable biosensors have evolved to the cutting-edge technology of personalized health care and provide promise for future directions in precision medicine. This is the reason why these devices stand to revolutionize our approach to health and disease management and offer insights into our bodily functions in ways that have never been possible before. This review article tries to delve into the important developments, new materials, and multifarious applications of these biosensors, along with a frank discussion on the challenges that the devices will face in their clinical deployment. In addition, techniques that have been employed for the improvement of the sensitivity and specificity of the biosensors alike are focused on in this article, like new biomarkers and advanced computational and data communicational models. A significant challenge of miniaturized in situ implants is that they need to be removed after serving their purpose. Surgical expulsion provokes discomfort to patients, potentially leading to post-operative complications. Therefore, the biodegradability of implants is an alternative method for removal through natural biological processes. This includes biocompatible materials to develop sensors that remain in the body over longer periods with a much-reduced immune response and better device longevity. However, the biodegradability of implantable sensors is still in its infancy compared to conventional non-biodegradable ones. Sensor design, morphology, fabrication, power, electronics, and data transmission all play a pivotal role in developing medically approved implantable biodegradable biosensors. Advanced material science and nanotechnology extended the capacity of different research groups to implement novel courses of action to design implantable and biodegradable sensor components. But the actualization of such potential for the transformative nature of the health sector, in the first place, will have to surmount the challenges related to biofouling, managing power, guaranteeing data security, and meeting today’s rules and regulations. Solving these problems will, therefore, not only enhance the performance and reliability of implantable biodegradable biosensors but also facilitate the translation of laboratory development into clinics, serving patients worldwide in their better disease management and personalized therapeutic interventions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prospects and Challenges of Biosensors towards Diagnostics of the Diseases and Health Monitoring)

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Graphical abstract

17 pages, 1526 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceReview

Developments in FRET- and BRET-Based Biosensors

by Yuexin Wu and Tianyu Jiang

Micromachines 2022, 13(10), 1789; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13101789 - 20 Oct 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5040

Abstract

Resonance energy transfer technologies have achieved great success in the field of analysis. Particularly, fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) provide strategies to design tools for sensing molecules and monitoring biological processes, which promote the development of biosensors. Here, we provide an overview of recent progress on FRET- and BRET-based biosensors and their roles in biomedicine, environmental applications, and synthetic biology. This review highlights FRET- and BRET-based biosensors and gives examples of their applications with their design strategies. The limitations of their applications and the future directions of their development are also discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prospects and Challenges of Biosensors towards Diagnostics of the Diseases and Health Monitoring)

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