Nanomaterials for Healthcare Biosensing Applications

In recent years, an increasing number of nanomaterials have been explored for their applications in biomedical diagnostics, making their applications in healthcare biosensing a rapidly evolving field. Nanomaterials introduce versatility to the sensing platforms and may even allow mobility between different detection mechanisms. The prospect of a combination of different nanomaterials allows an exploitation of their synergistic additive and novel properties for sensor development. This paper covers more than 290 research works since 2015, elaborating the diverse roles played by various nanomaterials in the biosensing field. Hence, we provide a comprehensive review of the healthcare sensing applications of nanomaterials, covering carbon allotrope-based, inorganic, and organic nanomaterials. These sensing systems are able to detect a wide variety of clinically relevant molecules, like nucleic acids, viruses, bacteria, cancer antigens, pharmaceuticals and narcotic drugs, toxins, contaminants, as well as entire cells in various sensing media, ranging from buffers to more complex environments such as urine, blood or sputum. Thus, the latest advancements reviewed in this paper hold tremendous potential for the application of nanomaterials in the early screening of diseases and point-of-care testing

Rapid Detection of Mycotoxin Contamination

A compilation of 12 original research articles and a review on the development of instrumental and immunoanalytical methods for mycotoxins; on the enhancement of sample preparation and selection to improve method applicability; and on practical applications of analytical methods in laboratory fungal cultures, cereal and feed samples, surface water (as a novel matrix of mycotoxins as emerging surface water contaminants), and during mycotoxin decontamination by bacteria. Target analyte mycotoxins include aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, diacetoxyscirpenol, fumonisins, fusarenone-X, HT-2 toxins, nivalenol, ochratoxins, sterigmatocystin, T-2 toxin, and zearalenone

Supramolecular Systems for Gene and Drug Delivery

Dear Colleagues,Supramolecular systems (calixarenes, cyclodextrins, polymers, peptides, etc.) have attracted special attention due to their excellent therapeutic properties for biomedical applications such as gene and drug delivery. Numerous biomaterials-based supramolecular systems have been developed in the last decade for enhancing of biocompatibility and pharmacological activity. In particular, supramolecular nanomaterials are considered a hot research topic, because nanomedicine has become an interesting tool for the treatment of genetic diseases or cancer. Nevertheless, novel systems and their properties are being continuously studied, contributing to the development of efficient delivery systems.This Special Issue provides and highlights current progress in the use of the supramolecular systems for boosting gene and drug delivery. Preparation, characterization, and use of these systems, as well as the latest developments in this research field, are especially welcome.Authors are encorauged to submit original research articles and reviews in this promising research field

Public-health-driven microfluidic technologies: from separation to detection

Separation and detection are ubiquitous in our daily life and they are two of the most important steps toward practical biomedical diagnostics and industrial applications. A deep understanding of working principles and examples of separation and detection enables a plethora of applications from blood test and air/water quality monitoring to food safety and biosecurity; none of which are irrelevant to public health. Microfluidics can separate and detect various particles/aerosols as well as cells/viruses in a cost-effective and easy-to-operate manner. There are a number of papers reviewing microfluidic separation and detection, but to the best of our knowledge, the two topics are normally reviewed separately. In fact, these two themes are closely related with each other from the perspectives of public health: understanding separation or sorting technique will lead to the development of new detection methods, thereby providing new paths to guide the separation routes. Therefore, the purpose of this review paper is two-fold: reporting the latest developments in the application of microfluidics for separation and outlining the emerging research in microfluidic detection. The dominating microfluidics-based passive separation methods and detection methods are discussed, along with the future perspectives and challenges being discussed. Our work inspires novel development of separation and detection methods for the benefits of public health

Cellulose-Based Biosensing Platforms

Cellulose empowers measurement science and technology with a simple, low-cost, and highly transformative analytical platform. This book helps the reader to understand and build an overview of the state of the art in cellulose-based (bio)sensing, particularly in terms of the design, fabrication, and advantageous analytical performance. In addition, wearable, clinical, and environmental applications of cellulose-based (bio)sensors are reported, where novel (nano)materials, architectures, signal enhancement strategies, as well as real-time connectivity and portability play a critical role

Nanomaterials for Biomedical and Biotechnological Applications

The need for constant improvement to reach a high standard of safety and to make nanomaterials accessible for marketing has generated a considerable number of scientific papers that highlight new important aspects to be considered, such as synthesis, stability, biocompatibility, and easy manipulation. In order to provide a comprehensive update on the latest discoveries concerning nanomaterials, this reprint presents 14 scientific papers, 10 research articles and 4 reviews, that deal with biomedical and biotechnological applications of nanomaterials

Multicomponent magnetic nanoparticle engineering: the role of structure-property relationship in advanced applications

Combining magnetic nanomaterials with materials of other classes can produce multicomponent nanoparticles with an entire ensemble of new structures and unique, enhanced, synergetic, and/or complementary functionalities. Here we discuss the most recent developments in the synthesis of multicomponent magnetic nanoparticles, describe the resulting structures and their novel properties, and explore their application in a variety of fields, including multimodal imaging, nanomedicine, sensing, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and heterogeneous catalysis. The current synthetic methods (usu-ally bottom-up approaches) of multicomponent nanoparticles can produce a number of tailored mor-phologies (core@shell, yolk-shell, core-satellite, Janus, nanochains, anisotropic, etc.), making them invaluable for applications in biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and engineering. But like any new technology, their synthesis methods need to be optimized to be simple, scalable, and as environmentally friendly as possible before they can be widely adopted. In particular, the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to guide future works toward environmental sustainability is highlighted. Overall, this review not only presents a critical and timely summary of the state-of-the-art of this burgeoning field in both fundamental and applied nanotechnology, but also addresses the challenges associated with under-standing the particular structure-property relationships of multicomponent magnetic nanoparticles.The authors thank funding from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) through the project PID2019-106099RB-C43/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Department under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06) programs, respectively

Particles Separation in Microfluidic Devices, Volume II

Microfluidic platforms are increasingly being used for separating a wide variety of particles based on their physical and chemical properties. In the past two decades, many practical applications have been found in chemical and biological sciences, including single cell analysis, clinical diagnostics, regenerative medicine, nanomaterials synthesis, environmental monitoring, etc. In this Special Issue, we invited contributions to report state-of-the-art developments in the fields of micro- and nanofluidic separation, fractionation, sorting, and purification of all classes of particles, including, but not limited to, active devices using electric, magnetic, optical, and acoustic forces; passive devices using geometries and hydrodynamic effects at the micro/nanoscale; confined and open platforms; label-based and label-free technology; and separation of bioparticles (including blood cells), circulating tumor cells, live/dead cells, exosomes, DNA, and non-bioparticles, including polymeric or inorganic micro- and nanoparticles, droplets, bubbles, etc. Practical devices that demonstrate capabilities to solve real-world problems were of particular interest