Search

There have been many recent advances in the nano-bio-chip (NBC) analysis methodology with implications for a number of high-morbidity diseases including HIV, cancer, and heart disease. In their Feature article, Jesse V. Jokerst of The University of Texas at Austin; Pierre N. Floriano, Nicolaos Christodoulides, and John T. McDevitt of Rice University; and James W. Jacobson and Bryon D. Bhagwandin of LabNow, Inc. discuss the construction, capabilities, and advantages of NBCs. The cover shows arrays of NBCs. Images courtesy of Glennon Simmons/McDevitt Lab and Marcha Miller of The University of Texas at Austin.

Salivary diagnostics is an emerging field that has progressed through several important developments in the past decade, including the publication of the human salivary proteome and the infusion of federal funds to integrate nanotechnologies and microfluidic engineering concepts into developing compact point-of-care devices for rapid analysis of this secretion. In this article, we discuss some of these developments and their relevance to the prognosis, diagnosis and management of periodontitis, as an oral target, and cardiovascular disease, as a systemic example for the potential of these biodiagnostics. Our findings suggest that several biomarkers are associated with distinct biological stages of these diseases and demonstrate promise as practical biomarkers in identifying and managing periodontal disease, and acute myocardial infarction. The majority of these studies have progressed through biomarker discovery, with the identified molecules requiring more robust clinical studies to enable substantive validation for disease diagnosis. It is predicted that with continued advances in this field the use of a combination of biomarkers in multiplex panels is likely to yield accurate screening tools for these diagnoses in the near future.