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Psychiatric research encompasses diverse methodologies to understand the complex interplay between neurochemistry and behavior in mental health disorders. Despite significant advancements in pharmacological interventions, there remains a critical gap in understanding the precise functional changes underlying psychiatric conditions and the mechanisms of action of therapeutic agents. Genetically encoded sensors have emerged as powerful tools to address these challenges by enabling real-time monitoring of neurochemical dynamics in specific neuronal populations. This prospective explores the utility of neurotransmitter binding genetically encoded sensors in uncovering the nature of neuronal dysregulation underpinning mental illness, assessing the impact of pharmaceutical interventions, and facilitating the discovery of novel treatments.

The demand for glucose monitoring devices has witnessed continuous growth from the rising diabetic population. The traditional approach of blood glucose (BG) sensor strip testing generates only intermittent glucose readings. Interstitial fluid-based devices measure glucose dynamically, but their sensing approaches remain either minimally invasive or prone to skin irritation. Here, a sweat glucose monitoring system is presented, which completely operates under rest with no sweat stimulation and can generate real-time BG dynamics. Osmotically driven hydrogels, capillary action with paper microfluidics, and self-powered enzymatic biochemical sensor are used for simultaneous sweat extraction, transport, and glucose monitoring, respectively. The osmotic forces facilitate greater flux inflow and minimize sweat rate fluctuations compared to natural perspiration-based sampling. The epidermal platform is tested on fingertip and forearm under varying physiological conditions. Personalized calibration models are developed and validated to obtain real-time BG information from sweat. The estimated BG concentration showed a good correlation with measured BG concentration, with all values lying in the A+B region of consensus error grid (MARD = 10.56% (fingertip) and 13.17% (forearm)). Overall, the successful execution of such osmotically driven continuous BG monitoring system from passive sweat can be a useful addition to the next-generation continuous sweat glucose monitors.

Successful integration of point-of-care testing (POCT) into clinical settings requires improved assay sensitivity and precision to match laboratory standards. Here, we show how innovations in amplified biosensing, imaging, and data processing, coupled with deep learning, can help improve POCT. To demonstrate the performance of our approach, we present a rapid and cost-effective paper-based high-sensitivity vertical flow assay (hs-VFA) for quantitative measurement of cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a biomarker widely used for measuring acute cardiac damage and assessing cardiovascular risk. The hs-VFA includes a colorimetric paper-based sensor, a portable reader with time-lapse imaging, and computational algorithms for digital assay validation and outlier detection. Operating at the level of a rapid at-home test, the hs-VFA enabled the accurate quantification of cTnI using 50 μL of serum within 15 min per test and achieved a detection limit of 0.2 pg/mL, enabled by gold ion amplification chemistry and time-lapse imaging. It also achieved high precision with a coefficient of variation of

The severe mismatch between solid bioelectronics and dynamic biological tissues has posed enduring challenges in the biomonitoring community. Here, we developed a reconfigurable liquid cardiac sensor capable of adapting to dynamic biological tissues, facilitating ambulatory cardiac monitoring unhindered by motion artifacts or interference from other biological activities. We employed an ultrahigh-resolution 3D scanning technique to capture tomographic images of the skin on the wrist. Then, we established a theoretical model to gain a deep understanding of the intricate interaction between our reconfigurable sensor and dynamic biological tissues. To properly elucidate the advantages of this sensor, we conducted cardiac monitoring alongside benchmarks such as the electrocardiogram. The liquid cardiac sensor was demonstrated to produce stable signals of high quality (23.1 dB) in ambulatory settings.

To determine how neuronal circuits encode and drive behavior, it is often necessary to measure and manipulate different aspects of neurochemical signaling in awake animals. Optogenetics and calcium sensors have paved the way for these types of studies, allowing for the perturbation and readout of spiking activity within genetically defined cell types. However, these methods lack the ability to further disentangle the roles of individual neuromodulator and neuropeptides on circuits and behavior. We review recent advances in chemical biology tools that enable precise spatiotemporal monitoring and control over individual neuroeffectors and their receptors in vivo. We also highlight discoveries enabled by such tools, revealing how these molecules signal across different timescales to drive learning, orchestrate behavioral changes, and modulate circuit activity.

Protein kinases are key signaling nodes that regulate fundamental biological and disease processes. Illuminating kinase signaling from multiple angles can provide deeper insights into disease mechanisms and improve therapeutic targeting. While fluorescent biosensors are powerful tools for visualizing live-cell kinase activity dynamics in real time, new molecular tools are needed that enable recording of transient signaling activities for post hoc analysis and targeted manipulation. Here, we develop a light-gated kinase activity coupled transcriptional integrator (KINACT) that converts dynamic kinase signals into permanent fluorescent marks. KINACT enables robust monitoring of kinase activity across scales, accurately recording subcellular PKA activity, highlighting PKA activity distribution in 3D cultures, and identifying PKA activators and inhibitors in high-throughput screens. We further leverage the ability of KINACT to drive signaling effector expression to allow feedback manipulation of the balance of GαsR201C-induced PKA and ERK activation and dissect the mechanisms of oncogenic G protein signaling.

Neuropeptides are ubiquitous in the nervous system. Research into neuropeptides has been limited by a lack of experimental tools that allow for the precise dissection of their complex and diverse dynamics in a circuit-specific manner. Opioid peptides modulate pain, reward and aversion and as such have high clinical relevance. To illuminate the spatiotemporal dynamics of endogenous opioid signaling in the brain, we developed a class of genetically encoded fluorescence sensors based on kappa, delta and mu opioid receptors: κLight, δLight and µLight, respectively. We characterized the pharmacological profiles of these sensors in mammalian cells and in dissociated neurons. We used κLight to identify electrical stimulation parameters that trigger endogenous opioid release and the spatiotemporal scale of dynorphin volume transmission in brain slices. Using in vivo fiber photometry in mice, we demonstrated the utility of these sensors in detecting optogenetically driven opioid release and observed differential opioid release dynamics in response to fearful and rewarding conditions.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a fatal disease with progressive severity and no cure; the hearts inability to adequately pump blood leads to fluid accumulation and frequent hospital readmissions after initial treatments. Therefore, it is imperative to continuously monitor CHF patients during its early stages to slow its progression and enable timely medical interventions for optimal treatment. An increase in interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) is indicative of acute CHF exacerbation, making IFP a viable biomarker for predicting upcoming CHF if continuously monitored. In this paper, we present an inductor-capacitor (LC) sensor for subcutaneous wireless and continuous IFP monitoring. The sensor is composed of inexpensive planar copper coils defined by a simple craft cutter, which serves as both the inductor and capacitor. Because of its sensing mechanism, the sensor does not require batteries and can wirelessly transmit pressure information. The sensor has a low-profile form factor for subcutaneous implantation and can communicate with a readout device through 4 layers of skin (12.7 mm thick in total). With a soft silicone rubber as the dielectric material between the copper coils, the sensor demonstrates an average sensitivity as high as -8.03 MHz/mmHg during in vitro simulations.

We herein present a multifunctional self-priming hairpin probe-based isothermal amplification, termed MSH, enabling one-pot detection of target nucleic acids. The sophisticatedly designed multifunctional self-priming hairpin (MSH) probe recognizes the target and rearranges to prime itself, triggering the amplification reaction powered by the continuously repeated extension, nicking, and target recycling. As a consequence, a large number of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) amplicons are produced that could be monitored in real-time using a dsDNA-intercalating dye. Based on this unique design approach, the nucleocapsid (N) and the open reading frame 1 ab (ORF1ab) genes of SARS-CoV-2 were successfully detected down to 1.664 fM and 0.770 fM, respectively. The practical applicability of our method was validated by accurately diagnosing 60 clinical samples with 93.33% sensitivity and 96.67% specificity. This isothermal one-pot MSH technique holds great promise as a point-of-care testing protocol for the reliable detection of a wide spectrum of pathogens, particularly in resource-limited settings.

Rapid and precise detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) holds great significance since it is linked to numerous physiological and inorganic catalytic processes. We herein developed a label-free and washing-free strategy to detect H2O2 by employing a hand-held personal glucose meter (PGM) as a signal readout device. By focusing on the fact that the reduced redox mediator ([Fe(CN)6]4-) itself is responsible for the final PGM signal, we developed a new PGM-based strategy to detect H2O2 by utilizing the target H2O2-mediated oxidation of [Fe(CN)6]4- to [Fe(CN)6]3- in the presence of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and monitoring the reduced PGM signal in response to the target amount. Based on this straightforward and facile design principle, H2O2 was successfully determined down to 3.63 μM with high specificity against various non-target molecules. We further demonstrated that this strategy could be expanded to identify another model target choline by detecting H2O2 produced through its oxidation promoted by choline oxidase. Moreover, we verified its practical applicability by reliably determining extracellular H2O2 released from the breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-231. This work could evolve into versatile PGM-based platform technology to identify various non-glucose target molecules by employing their corresponding oxidase enzymes, greatly advancing the portable biosensing technologies.

The highly contagious nature and 100% fatality rate contribute to the ongoing and expanding impact of the African swine fever virus (ASFV), causing significant economic losses worldwide. Herein, we developed a cascaded colorimetric detection using the combination of a CRISPR/Cas14a system, G-quadruplex DNAzyme, and microfluidic paper-based analytical device. This CRISPR/Cas14a-G4 biosensor could detect ASFV as low as 5 copies/μL and differentiate the wild-type and mutated ASFV DNA with 2-nt difference. Moreover, this approach was employed to detect ASFV in porcine plasma. A broad linear detection range was observed, and the limit of detection in spiked porcine plasma was calculated to be as low as 42-85 copies/μL. Our results indicate that the developed paper platform exhibits the advantages of high sensitivity, excellent specificity, and low cost, making it promising for clinical applications in the field of DNA disease detection and suitable for popularization in low-resourced areas.

In this work, we examine the use of environment-sensitive fluorescent dyes in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) biosensors. We screened merocyanine dyes to find an optimal combination of environment-induced lifetime changes, photostability, and brightness at wavelengths suitable for live-cell imaging. FLIM was used to monitor a biosensor reporting conformational changes of endogenous Cdc42 in living cells. The ability to quantify activity using phasor analysis of a single fluorophore (e.g., rather than ratio imaging) eliminated potential artifacts. We leveraged these properties to determine specific concentrations of activated Cdc42 across the cell.

Nucleic acid analysis plays an important role in disease diagnosis and treatment. The discovery of CRISPR technology has provided novel and versatile approaches to the detection of nucleic acids. However, the most widely used CRISPR-Cas12a detection platforms lack the capability to distinguish single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) from double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). To overcome this limitation, we first employed an anti-CRISPR protein (AcrVA1) to develop a novel CRISPR biosensor to detect ssDNA exclusively. In this sensing strategy, AcrVA1 cut CRISPR guide RNA (crRNA) to inhibit the cleavage activity of the CRISPR-Cas12a system. Only ssDNA has the ability to recruit the cleaved crRNA fragment to recover the detection ability of the CRISPR-Cas12 biosensor, but dsDNA cannot accomplish this. By measuring the recovered cleavage activity of the CRISPR-Cas12a biosensor, our developed AcrVA1-assisted CRISPR biosensor is capable of distinguishing ssDNA from dsDNA, providing a simple and reliable method for the detection of ssDNA. Furthermore, we demonstrated our developed AcrVA1-assisted CRISPR biosensor to monitor the enzymatic activity of helicase and screen its inhibitors.

Optical biosensors have a significant impact on various aspects of our lives. In many applications of optical biosensors, fluidic chambers play a crucial role in facilitating controlled fluid delivery. It is essential to achieve complete liquid replacement in order to obtain accurate and reliable results. However, the configurations of fluidic chambers vary across different optical biosensors, resulting in diverse fluidic volumes and flow rates, and there are no standardized guidelines for liquid replacement. In this paper, we utilize COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element analysis software, to investigate the optimal fluid volume required for two types of fluidic chambers in the context of the oblique-incidence reflectivity difference (OI-RD) biosensor. We found that the depth of the fluidic chamber is the most crucial factor influencing the required liquid volume, with the volume being a quadratic function of the depth. Additionally, the required fluid volume is also influenced by the positions on the substrate surface bearing samples, while the flow rate has no impact on the fluid volume.

This study presents a breakthrough in the field of onsite bacterial detection, offering an innovative, rapid, and ultrasensitive colorimetric biosensor for the detection of Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7, using chemically modified melamine foam (MF). Different from conventional platforms, such as 96-well plates and fiber-based membranes, the modified MF features a macroporous reticulated three-dimensional (3D) framework structure, allowing fast and free movement of large biomolecules and bacteria cells through the MF structure in every direction and ensuring good accessibility of entire active binding sites of the framework structure with the target bacteria, which significantly increased sensitive and volume-responsive detection of whole-cell bacteria. The biosensing platform requires less than 1.5 h to complete the quantitative detection with a sensitivity of 10 cfu/mL, discernible by the naked eye, and an enhanced sensitivity of 5 cfu/mL with the help of a smartphone. Following a short enrichment period of 1 h, the sensitivity was further amplified to 2 cfu/mL. The biosensor material is volume responsive, making the biosensing platform sensitivity increase as the volume of the sample increases, and is highly suitable for testing large-volume fluid samples. This novel material paves the way for the development of volume-flexible biosensing platforms for the record-fast, onsite, selective, and ultrasensitive detection of various pathogenic bacteria in real-world applications.

Sepsis is an extremely dangerous medical condition that emanates from the bodys response to a pre-existing infection. Early detection of sepsis-inducing bacterial infections can greatly enhance the treatment process and potentially prevent the onset of sepsis. However, current point-of-care (POC) sensors are often complex and costly or lack the ideal sensitivity for effective bacterial detection. Therefore, it is crucial to develop rapid and sensitive biosensors for the on-site detection of sepsis-inducing bacteria. Herein, we developed a graphene oxide CRISPR-Cas12a (GO-CRISPR) biosensor for the detection of sepsis-inducing bacteria in human serum. In this strategy, single-stranded (ssDNA) FAM probes were quenched with single-layer graphene oxide (GO). Target-activated Cas12a trans-cleavage was utilized for the degradation of the ssDNA probes, detaching the short ssDNA probes from GO and recovering the fluorescent signals. Under optimal conditions, we employed our GO-CRISPR system for the detection of Salmonella Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) with a detection sensitivity of as low as 3 × 103 CFU/mL in human serum, as well as a good detection specificity toward other competing bacteria. In addition, the GO-CRISPR biosensor exhibited excellent sensitivity to the detection of S. Typhimurium in spiked human serum. The GO-CRISPR system offers superior rapidity for the detection of sepsis-inducing bacteria and has the potential to enhance the early detection of bacterial infections in resource-limited settings, expediting the response for patients at risk of sepsis.

Many peptide hormones form an α-helix on binding their receptors1-4, and sensitive methods for their detection could contribute to better clinical management of disease5. De novo protein design can now generate binders with high affinity and specificity to structured proteins6,7. However, the design of interactions between proteins and short peptides with helical propensity is an unmet challenge. Here we describe parametric generation and deep learning-based methods for designing proteins to address this challenge. We show that by extending RFdiffusion8 to enable binder design to flexible targets, and to refining input structure models by successive noising and denoising (partial diffusion), picomolar-affinity binders can be generated to helical peptide targets by either refining designs generated with other methods, or completely de novo starting from random noise distributions without any subsequent experimental optimization. The RFdiffusion designs enable the enrichment and subsequent detection of parathyroid hormone and glucagon by mass spectrometry, and the construction of bioluminescence-based protein biosensors. The ability to design binders to conformationally variable targets, and to optimize by partial diffusion both natural and designed proteins, should be broadly useful.

α-Amanitin (AMN) is one of the deadliest toxins from mushrooms, present in the deadly mushroom species Amanita phalloides. It is a bicyclic octapeptide and represents up to 40% of the amatoxins in mushrooms, damaging the liver and kidneys. Current methods of detecting amatoxins are time-consuming and require the use of expensive equipment. A novel label-free electrochemical immunosensor was successfully developed for rapid detection of α-amanitin, which was fabricated by immobilization of anti-α-amanitin antibodies onto a functionalized cellulose nanofibrous membrane-modified carbon screen-printed electrode. An oxidation peak of the captured amanitin on the tethered antibodies was observed at 0.45 V. The performance of the nanofibrous membrane on the electrode and necessary fabrication steps were investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Due to its unique structural features and properties such as high specific surface area and microporous structure, the nanofibrous membrane as an immunosensor matrix for antibody tethering improved the electrochemical performance of the immunosensor by more than 3 times compared with cast membranes. Under the optimal conditions, the assembled immunosensor exhibited high sensitivity toward α-amanitin detection in the range of 0.009-2 ng mL-1 with a limit of detection of 8.3 pg mL-1. The results clearly indicate that the fabricated nanofiber-based-immunosensor is suitable for point-of-care detection of lethal α-amanitin in human urine without any pretreatment within 30 min.

As cell signaling research has advanced, it has become clearer that signal transduction has complex spatiotemporal regulation that goes beyond foundational linear transduction models. Several technologies have enabled these discoveries, including fluorescent biosensors designed to report live biochemical signaling events. As genetically encoded and live-cell compatible tools, fluorescent biosensors are well suited to address diverse cell signaling questions across different spatial scales of regulation. In this review, methods of examining spatial signaling regulation and the design of fluorescent biosensors are introduced. Then, recent biosensor developments that illuminate the importance of spatial regulation in cell signaling are highlighted at several scales, including membranes and organelles, molecular assemblies, and cell/tissue heterogeneity. In closing, perspectives on how fluorescent biosensors will continue enhancing cell signaling research are discussed.

Cells execute specific responses to diverse environmental cues by encoding information in distinctly compartmentalized biochemical signalling reactions. Genetically encoded fluorescent biosensors enable the spatial and temporal monitoring of signalling events in live cells. Temporal and spatiotemporal computational models can be used to interpret biosensor experiments in complex biochemical networks and to explore hypotheses that are difficult to test experimentally. In this review, we first provide brief discussions of the experimental toolkit of fluorescent biosensors as well as computational basics with a focus on temporal and spatiotemporal deterministic models. We then describe how we used this combined approach to identify and investigate a protein kinase A (PKA) - cAMP - Ca2+ oscillatory circuit in MIN6 β cells, a mouse pancreatic β cell system. We describe the application of this combined approach to interrogate how this oscillatory circuit is differentially regulated in a nano-compartment formed at the plasma membrane by the scaffolding protein A kinase anchoring protein 79/150. We leveraged both temporal and spatiotemporal deterministic models to identify the key regulators of this oscillatory circuit, which we confirmed with further experiments. The powerful approach of combining live-cell biosensor imaging with quantitative modelling, as discussed here, should find widespread use in the investigation of spatiotemporal regulation of cell signalling.

The species included in the ESKAPE group (Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the genus Enterobacter) have a high capacity to develop antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a health problem that is already among the leading causes of death and could kill 10 million people a year by 2050. The generation of new potentially therapeutic molecules has been insufficient to combat the AMR "crisis", and the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that it will seek to promote the development of rapid diagnostic strategies. The physicochemical properties of metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) have made it possible to design biosensors capable of identifying low concentrations of ESKAPE bacteria in the short term; other systems identify antimicrobial susceptibility, and some have been designed with dual activity in situ (bacterial detection and antimicrobial activity), which suggests that, in the near future, multifunctional biosensors could exist based on MNPs capable of quickly identifying bacterial pathogens in clinical niches might become commercially available. This review focuses on the use of MNP-based systems for the rapid and accurate identification of clinically important bacterial pathogens, exhibiting the necessity for exhaustive research to achieve these objectives. This review focuses on the use of metal nanoparticle-based systems for the rapid and accurate identification of clinically important bacterial pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensors are capable of measuring the concentrations of specific molecules in vivo, in real time, and with a few-second time resolution. For their signal transduction mechanism, these sensors utilize a binding-induced conformational change in their target-recognizing, redox-reporter-modified aptamer to alter the rate of electron transfer between the reporter and the supporting electrode. While a variety of voltammetric techniques have been used to monitor this change in kinetics, they suffer from various drawbacks, including time resolution limited to several seconds and sensor-to-sensor variation that requires calibration to remove. Here, however, we show that the use of fast Fourier transform electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (FFT-EIS) to interrogate EAB sensors leads to improved (here better than 2 s) time resolution and calibration-free operation, even when such sensors are deployed in vivo. To showcase these benefits, we demonstrate the approachs ability to perform real-time molecular measurements in the veins of living rats.

Genetically encoded optical sensors and advancements in microscopy instrumentation and techniques have revolutionized the scientific toolbox available for probing complex biological processes such as release of specific neurotransmitters. Most genetically encoded optical sensors currently used are based on fluorescence and have been highly successful tools for single-cell imaging in superficial brain regions. However, there remains a need to develop new tools for reporting neuronal activity in vivo within deeper structures without the need for hardware such as lenses or fibers to be implanted within the brain. Our approach to this problem is to replace the fluorescent elements of the existing biosensors with bioluminescent elements. This eliminates the need of external light sources to illuminate the sensor, thus allowing deeper brain regions to be imaged noninvasively. Here, we report the development of the first genetically encoded neurotransmitter indicators based on bioluminescent light emission. These probes were optimized by high-throughput screening of linker libraries. The selected probes exhibit robust changes in light output in response to the extracellular presence of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. We expect this new approach to neurotransmitter indicator design to enable the engineering of specific bioluminescent probes for multiple additional neurotransmitters in the future, ultimately allowing neuroscientists to monitor activity associated with a specific neurotransmitter as it relates to behavior in a variety of neuronal and psychiatric disorders, among many other applications.

Transcriptional factors-based biosensors are commonly used in metabolic engineering for inducible control of gene expression and related applications such as high-throughput screening and dynamic pathway regulations. Mining for novel transcriptional factors is essential for expanding the usability of these toolsets. Here, we report the identification, characterization, and engineering of a phenolic acid responsive regulator PadR from Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (BaPadR). This BaPadR-based biosensor system showed a unique ligand preference and exhibited a high output strength comparable to that of commonly used inducible expression systems. Through engineering the DNA binding region of BaPadR, we further enhanced the dynamic range of the biosensor system. The DNA sequences that are responsible for BaPadR recognition were located by promoter truncation and hybrid promoter building. To further explore the tunability of the sensor system, base substitutions were performed on the BaPadR binding region of the phenolic acid decarboxylase promoter (PpadC) and the hybrid promoter. This novel biosensor system can serve as a valuable tool in future synthetic biology applications.

An aerosol jet printing-enabled dual-function biosensor for the sensitive detection of pathogens using SARS-CoV-2 RNA as an example has been developed. A CRISPR-Cas13:guide-RNA complex is activated in the presence of a target RNA, leading to the collateral trans-cleavage of ssRNA probes that contain a horseradish peroxidase (HRP) tag. This, in turn, catalyzes the oxidation of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) by HRP, resulting in a color change and electrochemical signal change. The colorimetric and electrochemical sensing protocol does not require complicated target amplification and probe immobilization and exhibits a detection sensitivity in the femtomolar range. Additionally, our biosensor demonstrates a wide dynamic range of 5 orders of magnitude. This low-cost aerosol inkjet printing technique allows for an amplification-free and integrated dual-function biosensor platform, which operates at physiological temperature and is designed for simple, rapid, and accurate point-of-care (POC) diagnostics in either low-resource settings or hospitals.

Through the magic of "active matter"─matter that converts chemical energy into mechanical work to drive emergent properties─biology solves a myriad of seemingly enormous physical challenges. Using active matter surfaces, for example, our lungs clear an astronomically large number of particulate contaminants that accompany each of the 10,000 L of air we respire per day, thus ensuring that the lungs' gas exchange surfaces remain functional. In this Perspective, we describe our efforts to engineer artificial active surfaces that mimic active matter surfaces in biology. Specifically, we seek to assemble the basic active matter components─mechanical motor, driven constituent, and energy source─to design surfaces that support the continuous operation of molecular sensing, recognition, and exchange. The successful realization of this technology would generate multifunctional, "living" surfaces that combine the dynamic programmability of active matter and the molecular specificity of biological surfaces and apply them to applications in biosensors, chemical diagnostics, and other surface transport and catalytic processes. We describe our recent efforts in bio-enabled engineering of living surfaces through the design of molecular probes to understand and integrate native biological membranes into synthetic materials.

In addition to efficacious vaccines and antiviral therapeutics, reliable and flexible in-home personal use diagnostics for the detection of viral antigens are needed for effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the approval of several PCR-based and affinity-based in-home COVID-19 testing kits, many of them suffer from problems such as a high false-negative rate, long waiting time, and short storage period. Using the enabling one-bead-one-compound (OBOC) combinatorial technology, several peptidic ligands with a nanomolar binding affinity toward the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S-protein) were successfully discovered. Taking advantage of the high surface area of porous nanofibers, immobilization of these ligands on nanofibrous membranes allows the development of personal use sensors that can achieve low nanomolar sensitivity in the detection of the S-protein in saliva. This simple biosensor employing naked-eye reading exhibits detection sensitivity comparable to some of the current FDA-approved home detection kits. Furthermore, the ligand used in the biosensor was found to detect the S-protein derived from both the original strain and the Delta variant. The workflow reported here may enable us to rapidly respond to the development of home-based biosensors against future viral outbreaks.

Aptameric receptors are important biosensor components, yet our ability to identify them depends on the target structures. We analyzed the contributions of individual functional groups on small molecules to binding within 27 target-aptamer pairs, identifying potential hindrances to receptor isolation-for example, negative cooperativity between sterically hindered functional groups. To increase the probability of aptamer isolation for important targets, such as leucine and voriconazole, for which multiple previous selection attempts failed, we designed tailored strategies focused on overcoming individual structural barriers to successful selections. This approach enables us to move beyond standardized protocols into functional group-guided searches, relying on sequences common to receptors for targets and their analogs to serve as anchors in regions of vast oligonucleotide spaces wherein useful reagents are likely to be found.

Wearable sensors hold great potential in empowering personalized health monitoring, predictive analytics, and timely intervention toward personalized healthcare. Advances in flexible electronics, materials science, and electrochemistry have spurred the development of wearable sweat sensors that enable the continuous and noninvasive screening of analytes indicative of health status. Existing major challenges in wearable sensors include: improving the sweat extraction and sweat sensing capabilities, improving the form factor of the wearable device for minimal discomfort and reliable measurements when worn, and understanding the clinical value of sweat analytes toward biomarker discovery. This review provides a comprehensive review of wearable sweat sensors and outlines state-of-the-art technologies and research that strive to bridge these gaps. The physiology of sweat, materials, biosensing mechanisms and advances, and approaches for sweat induction and sampling are introduced. Additionally, design considerations for the system-level development of wearable sweat sensing devices, spanning from strategies for prolonged sweat extraction to efficient powering of wearables, are discussed. Furthermore, the applications, data analytics, commercialization efforts, challenges, and prospects of wearable sweat sensors for precision medicine are discussed.

A highly sensitive, circulating tumor cell (CTC)-based liquid biopsy was used to monitor gastrointestinal cancer patients during treatment to determine if CTC abundance was predictive of disease recurrence. The approach used a combination of biomimetic cell rolling on recombinant E-selectin and dendrimer-mediated multivalent immunocapture at the nanoscale to purify CTCs from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Due to the exceptionally high numbers of CTCs captured, a machine learning algorithm approach was developed to efficiently and reliably quantify abundance of immunocytochemically-labeled cells. A convolutional neural network and logistic regression model achieved 82.9% true-positive identification of CTCs with a false positive rate below 0.1% on a validation set. The approach was then used to quantify CTC abundance in peripheral blood samples from 27 subjects before, during, and following treatments. Samples drawn from the patients either prior to receiving radiotherapy or early in chemotherapy had a median 50 CTC ml-1 whole blood (range 0.6-541.6). We found that the CTC counts drawn 3 months post treatment were predictive of disease progression (p = .045). This approach to quantifying CTC abundance may be a clinically impactful in the timely determination of gastrointestinal cancer progression or response to treatment.

Recent years have seen continued expansion of the functionality of lab on a chip (LOC) devices. Indeed LOCs now provide scientists and developers with useful and versatile platforms across a myriad of chemical and biological applications. The field still fails, however, to integrate an often important element of bench-top analytics: real-time molecular measurements that can be used to guide a chemical response. Here we describe the analytical techniques that could provide LOCs with such real-time molecular monitoring capabilities. It appears to us that, among the approaches that are general (i.e., that are independent of the reactive or optical properties of their targets), sensing strategies relying on binding-induced conformational change of bioreceptors are most likely to succeed in such applications.

Environmental toxic pollutants and pathogens that enter the ecosystem are major global issues. Detection of these toxic chemicals/pollutants and the diagnosis of a disease is a first step in efficiently controlling their contamination and spread, respectively. Various analytical techniques are available to detect and determine toxic chemicals/pathogens, including liquid chromatography, HPLC, mass spectroscopy, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. However, these sensing strategies have some drawbacks such as tedious sample pretreatment and preparation, the requirement for skilled technicians, and dependence on large laboratory-based instruments. Alternatively, biosensors, especially paper-based sensors, could be used extensively and are a cost-effective alternative to conventional laboratory testing. They can improve accessibility to testing to identify chemicals and pollutants, especially in developing countries. Due to its low cost, abundance, easy disposal (by incineration, for example) and biocompatible nature, paper is considered a versatile material for the development of environmentally friendly electrochemical/optical (bio) sensor devices. This review presents an overview of sensing platforms constructed from paper, pointing out the main merits and demerits of paper-based sensing systems, their fabrication techniques, and the different optical/electrochemical detection techniques that they exploit.

Real-time tracking of neurotransmitter levels in vivo has been technically challenging due to the low spatiotemporal resolution of current methods. Since the imbalance of cortical excitation/inhibition (E:I) ratios are associated with a variety of neurological disorders, accurate monitoring of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter levels is crucial for investigating the underlying neural mechanisms of these conditions. Specifically, levels of the excitatory neurotransmitter L-glutamate, and the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, are assumed to play critical roles in the E:I balance. Therefore, in this work, a flexible electrochemical microsensor is developed for real-time simultaneous detection of L-glutamate and GABA. The flexible polyimide substrate was used for easier handling during implantation and measurement, along with less brain damage. Further, by electrochemically depositing Pt-black nanostructures on the sensor's surface, the active surface area was enhanced for higher sensitivity. This dual neurotransmitter sensor probe was validated under various settings for its performance, including in vitro, ex vivo tests with glutamatergic neuronal cells and in vivo test with anesthetized rats. Additionally, the sensor's performance has been further investigated in terms of longevity and biocompatibility. Overall, our dual L-glutamate:GABA sensor microprobe has its unique features to enable accurate, real-time, and long-term monitoring of the E:I balance in vivo. Thus, this new tool should aid investigations of neural mechanisms of normal brain function and various neurological disorders.

Electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensors utilize the binding-induced conformational change of an electrode-attached, redox-reporter-modified aptamer to transduce target recognition into an easily measurable electrochemical output. Because this signal transduction mechanism is single-step and rapidly reversible, EAB sensors support high-frequency, real-time molecular measurements, and because it recapitulates the reagentless, conformation-linked signaling seen in vivo among naturally occurring receptors, EAB sensors are selective enough to work in the complex, time-varying environments found in the living body. The fabrication of EAB sensors, however, requires that their target-recognizing aptamer be modified such that (1) it undergoes the necessary binding-induced conformational change and (2) that the thermodynamics of this conformational switch are tuned to ensure that they reflect an acceptable trade-off between affinity and signal gain. That is, even if an as-selected aptamer achieves useful affinity and specificity, it may fail when adapted to the EAB platform because it lacks the binding-induced conformational change required to support EAB signaling. In this paper we reveal the spectroscopy-guided approaches we use to modify aptamers such that they support the necessary binding-induced conformational change. Specifically, using newly reported aptamers, we demonstrate the systematic design of EAB sensors achieving clinically and physiologically relevant specificity, limits of detection, and dynamic range against the targets methotrexate and tryptophan.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) represents a transformative tool in medical diagnostics, particularly for the early detection of key biomarkers such as small extracellular vesicles (sEVs). Its unparalleled sensitivity and compatibility with intricate biological samples make it an ideal candidate for revolutionizing noninvasive diagnostic methods. However, a significant challenge that mars its efficacy is the throughput limitation, primarily anchored in the prerequisite of hotspot and sEV colocalization within a minuscule range. This paper delves deep into this issue, introducing a never-attempted-before approach which harnesses the principles of crystallization-nucleation and growth. By synergistically coupling lasers with plasmonic resonances, we navigate the challenges associated with the analyte droplet drying method and the notorious coffee ring effect. Our method, rooted in a profound understanding of crystallization's materials science, exhibits the potential to significantly increase the areal density of accessible plasmonic hotspots and efficiently guide exosomes to defined regions. In doing so, we not only overcome the throughput challenge but also promise a paradigm shift in the arena of minimally invasive biosensing, ushering in advanced diagnostic capabilities for life-threatening diseases.

Biosensors are analytical devices that utilize biological sensing elements, such as enzymes, antibodies, nucleic acids, or cells, to detect a given analyte [...].

Research into extracellular vesicles (EVs) has grown significantly over the last few decades with EVs being widely regarded as a source of biomarkers for human health and disease with massive clinical potential. Secreted by every cell type in the body, EVs report on the internal cellular conditions across all tissue types. Their presence in readily accessible biofluids makes the potential of EV biosensing highly attractive as a noninvasive diagnostic platform via liquid biopsies. However, their small size (50-250 nm), inherent heterogeneity, and the complexity of the native biofluids introduce challenges for effective characterization, thus, limiting their clinical utility. This has led to a surge in the development of various novel EV biosensing techniques, with capabilities beyond those of conventional methods that have been directly transferred from cell biology. In this review, key detection principles used for EV biosensing are summarized, with a focus on some of the most recent and fundamental developments in the field over the last 5 years. This article is categorized under: Diagnostic Tools > Biosensing Diagnostic Tools > In Vitro Nanoparticle-Based Sensing.

The correct detection and quantification of pollutants in water is key to regulating their presence in the environment. Biosensors offer several advantages, such as minimal sample preparation, short measurement times, high specificity and sensibility and low detection limits. The purpose of this review is to explore the different types of optical biosensors, focusing on their biological elements and their principle of operation, as well as recent applications in the detection of pollutants in water. According to our literature review, 33% of the publications used fluorescence-based biosensors, followed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with 28%. So far, SPR biosensors have achieved the best results in terms of detection limits. Although less common (22%), interferometers and resonators (4%) are also highly promising due to the low detection limits that can be reached using these techniques. In terms of biological recognition elements, 43% of the published works focused on antibodies due to their high affinity and stability, although they could be replaced with molecularly imprinted polymers. This review offers a unique compilation of the most recent work in the specific area of optical biosensing for water monitoring, focusing on both the biological element and the transducer used, as well as the type of target contaminant. Recent technological advances are discussed.

Wearable biosensors (wearables) enable continual, noninvasive physiologic and behavioral monitoring at home for those with pediatric or congenital heart disease. Wearables allow patients to access their personal data and monitor their health. Despite substantial technologic advances in recent years, issues with hardware design, data analysis, and integration into the clinical workflow prevent wearables from reaching their potential in high-risk congenital heart disease populations. This science advisory reviews the use of wearables in patients with congenital heart disease, how to improve these technologies for clinicians and patients, and ethical and regulatory considerations. Challenges related to the use of wearables are common to every clinical setting, but specific topics for consideration in congenital heart disease are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aptamers are single-stranded oligonucleotide sequences capable of binding to specific ligands with high affinity. In this manner, they are like antibodies but have advantages such as lower manufacturing costs, lower immunogenicity, fewer batch-to-batch differences, a longer shelf life, high tolerance to different molecular milieus, and a greater number of potential targets. Due to their special features, they have been used in drug delivery, biosensor technology, therapy, and diagnostics. The methodology that allowed its production was the “Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential enrichment” (SELEX). Unfortunately, the traditional protocol is time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, numerous variants with considerable optimization steps have been developed, nonetheless, there are still challenges to achieving real applications in the clinical field. Among them, are control of in vivo activities, fast renal filtration, degradation by nucleases and toxicity testing. This review focuses on current technologies based on SELEX, the critical factors for successful aptamer selection, and its upcoming biomedical and biotechnological applications.

Monitoring neurochemical signaling across time scales is critical to understanding how brains encode and store information. Flexible (vs stiff) devices have been shown to improve in vivo monitoring, particularly over longer times, by reducing tissue damage and immunological responses. Here, we report our initial steps toward developing flexible and implantable neuroprobes with aptamer-field-effect transistor (FET) biosensors for neurotransmitter monitoring. A high-throughput process was developed to fabricate thin, flexible polyimide probes using microelectromechanical-system (MEMS) technologies, where 150 flexible probes were fabricated on each 4 in. Si wafer. Probes were 150 μm wide and 7 μm thick with two FETs per tip. The bending stiffness was 1.2 × 10-11 N·m2. Semiconductor thin films (3 nm In2O3) were functionalized with DNA aptamers for target recognition, which produces aptamer conformational rearrangements detected via changes in FET conductance. Flexible aptamer-FET neuroprobes detected serotonin at femtomolar concentrations in high-ionic strength artificial cerebrospinal fluid. A straightforward implantation process was developed, where microfabricated Si carrier devices assisted with implantation such that flexible neuroprobes detected physiological relevant serotonin in a tissue-hydrogel brain mimic.

Precise spatiotemporal organization and regulation of signal transduction networks are essential for cellular response to internal and external cues. To understand how this biochemical activity architecture impacts cellular function, many genetically encodable tools which regulate kinase activity at a subcellular level have been developed. In this review, we highlight various types of genetically encodable molecular tools, including tools to regulate endogenous kinase activity and biorthogonal techniques to perturb kinase activity. Finally, we emphasize the use of these tools alongside biosensors for kinase activity to measure and perturb kinase activity in real time for a better understanding of the cellular biochemical activity architecture.

Biomarkers are crucial biological indicators in medical diagnostics and therapy. However, the process of biomarker discovery and validation is hindered by a lack of standardized protocols for analytical studies, storage and sample collection. Wearable chemical sensors provide a real-time, non-invasive alternative to typical laboratory blood analysis, and are an effective tool for exploring novel biomarkers in alternative body fluids, such as sweat, saliva, tears and interstitial fluid. These devices may enable remote at-home personalized health monitoring and substantially reduce the healthcare costs. This Review introduces criteria, strategies and technologies involved in biomarker discovery using wearable chemical sensors. Electrochemical and optical detection techniques are discussed, along with the materials and system-level considerations for wearable chemical sensors. Lastly, this Review describes how the large sets of temporal data collected by wearable sensors, coupled with modern data analysis approaches, would open the door for discovering new biomarkers towards precision medicine.

A general method to generate biosensors for user-defined molecules could provide detection tools for a wide range of biological applications. Here, we describe an approach for the rapid engineering of biosensors using PYR1 (Pyrabactin Resistance 1), a plant abscisic acid (ABA) receptor with a malleable ligand-binding pocket and a requirement for ligand-induced heterodimerization, which facilitates the construction of sense-response functions. We applied this platform to evolve 21 sensors with nanomolar to micromolar sensitivities for a range of small molecules, including structurally diverse natural and synthetic cannabinoids and several organophosphates. X-ray crystallography analysis revealed the mechanistic basis for new ligand recognition by an evolved cannabinoid receptor. We demonstrate that PYR1-derived receptors are readily ported to various ligand-responsive outputs, including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-like assays, luminescence by protein-fragment complementation and transcriptional circuits, all with picomolar to nanomolar sensitivity. PYR1 provides a scaffold for rapidly evolving new biosensors for diverse sense-response applications.

Real-time chemical sensing is crucial for applications in environmental and health monitoring1. Biosensors can detect a variety of molecules through genetic circuits that use these chemicals to trigger the synthesis of a coloured protein, thereby producing an optical signal2-4. However, the process of protein expression limits the speed of this sensing to approximately half an hour, and optical signals are often difficult to detect in situ5-8. Here we combine synthetic biology and materials engineering to develop biosensors that produce electrical readouts and have detection times of minutes. We programmed Escherichia coli to produce an electrical current in response to specific chemicals using a modular, eight-component, synthetic electron transport chain. As designed, this strain produced current following exposure to thiosulfate, an anion that causes microbial blooms, within 2 min. This amperometric sensor was then modified to detect an endocrine disruptor. The incorporation of a protein switch into the synthetic pathway and encapsulation of the bacteria with conductive nanomaterials enabled the detection of the endocrine disruptor in urban waterway samples within 3 min. Our results provide design rules to sense various chemicals with mass-transport-limited detection times and a new platform for miniature, low-power bioelectronic sensors that safeguard ecological and human health.

Advancements in wearable bioanalytical microsystems have enabled diurnal and (semi)continuous monitoring of physiologically-relevant indices that are accessible through probing sweat. To deliver an undistorted and physiologically-meaningful interpretation of these readings, tracking the sweat secretion rate is essential, because it allows for calibrating the biomarker readings against variations in sweat secretion and inferring the bodys hydration/electrolyte homeostasis status. To realize an autonomous wearable solution with intrinsically high signal-to-noise ratio sweat rate sensing capabilities, here, we devise a digitized microbubble detection mechanism-delivered by a hybrid microfluidic/electronic system with a compact footprint. This mechanism is based on the intermittent generation of microliter-scale bubbles via electrolysis and the instantaneous measurement of their time-of-flight (and thus, velocity) via impedimetric sensing. In this way, we overcome the limitations of previously proposed sweat rate sensing modalities that are inherently susceptible to non-targeted secretion characteristics (pH, conductivity, and temperature), constrained by volume, or lack system integration for autonomous on-body operation. By deploying our solution in human subject trials, we validate the utility of our solution for seamless monitoring of exercise- and iontophoretically-induced sweat secretion profiles.

Wearable non-invasive biosensors for the continuous monitoring of metabolites in sweat can detect a few analytes at sufficiently high concentrations, typically during vigorous exercise so as to generate sufficient quantity of the biofluid. Here we report the design and performance of a wearable electrochemical biosensor for the continuous analysis, in sweat during physical exercise and at rest, of trace levels of multiple metabolites and nutrients, including all essential amino acids and vitamins. The biosensor consists of graphene electrodes that can be repeatedly regenerated in situ, functionalized with metabolite-specific antibody-like molecularly imprinted polymers and redox-active reporter nanoparticles, and integrated with modules for iontophoresis-based sweat induction, microfluidic sweat sampling, signal processing and calibration, and wireless communication. In volunteers, the biosensor enabled the real-time monitoring of the intake of amino acids and their levels during physical exercise, as well as the assessment of the risk of metabolic syndrome (by correlating amino acid levels in serum and sweat). The monitoring of metabolites for the early identification of abnormal health conditions could facilitate applications in precision nutrition.

The continuous, real-time measurement of specific molecules in situ in the body would greatly improve our ability to understand, diagnose, and treat disease. The vast majority of continuous molecular sensing technologies, however, either (1) rely on the chemical or enzymatic reactivity of their targets, sharply limiting their scope, or (2) have never been shown (and likely will never be shown) to operate in the complex environments found in vivo. Against this background, here we review electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensors, an electrochemical approach to real-time molecular monitoring that has now seen 15 years of academic development. The strengths of the EAB platform are significant: to date it is the only molecular measurement technology that (1) functions independently of the chemical reactivity of its targets, and is thus general, and (2) supports in vivo measurements. Specifically, using EAB sensors we, and others, have already reported the real-time, seconds-resolved measurements of multiple, unrelated drugs and metabolites in situ in the veins and tissues of live animals. Against these strengths, we detail the platform's remaining weaknesses, which include still limited measurement duration (hours, rather than the more desirable days) and the difficulty in obtaining sufficiently high performance aptamers against new targets, before then detailing promising approaches overcoming these hurdles. Finally, we close by exploring the opportunities we believe this potentially revolutionary technology (as well as a few, possibly competing, technologies) will create for both researchers and clinicians.

Far-red and near-infrared (NIR) genetically encoded calcium ion (Ca2+ ) indicators (GECIs) are powerful tools for in vivo and multiplexed imaging of neural activity and cell signaling. Inspired by a previous report to engineer a far-red fluorescent protein (FP) from a biliverdin (BV)-binding NIR FP, we have developed a far-red fluorescent GECI, designated iBB-GECO1, from a previously reported NIR GECI. iBB-GECO1 exhibits a relatively high molecular brightness, an inverse response to Ca2+ with ΔF/Fmin  = -13, and a near-optimal dissociation constant (Kd ) for Ca2+ of 105 nM. We demonstrate the utility of iBB-GECO1 for four-color multiplexed imaging in MIN6 cells and five-color imaging in HEK293T cells. Like other BV-binding GECIs, iBB-GECO1 did not give robust signals during in vivo imaging of neural activity in mice, but did provide promising results that will guide future engineering efforts. SIGNIFICANCE: Genetically encoded calcium ion (Ca2+ ) indicators (GECIs) compatible with common far-red laser lines (~630-640 nm) on commercial microscopes are of critical importance for their widespread application to deep-tissue multiplexed imaging of neural activity. In this study, we engineered a far-red excitable fluorescent GECI, designated iBB-GECO1, that exhibits a range of preferable specifications such as high brightness, large fluorescence response to Ca2+ , and compatibility with multiplexed imaging in mammalian cells.

Background/Aims Upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is a life-threatening condition that necessitates early identification and intervention and is associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and socioeconomic burden. However, several diagnostic challenges remain regarding risk stratification and the optimal timing of endoscopy. The PillSense System is a noninvasive device developed to detect blood in patients with UGIB in real time. This study aimed to assess the safety and performance characteristics of PillSense using a simulated bleeding model. Methods A preclinical study was performed using an in vivo porcine model (14 animals). Fourteen PillSense capsules were endoscopically placed in the stomach and blood was injected into the stomach to simulate bleeding. The safety and sensitivity of blood detection and pill excretion were also investigated. Results All the sensors successfully detected the presence or absence of blood. The minimum threshold was 9% blood concentration, with additional detection of increasing concentrations of up to 22.5% blood. All the sensors passed naturally through the gastrointestinal tract. Conclusions This study demonstrated the ability of the PillSense System sensor to detect UGIB across a wide range of blood concentrations. This ingestible device detects UGIB in real time and has the potential to be an effective tool to supplement the current standard of care. These favorable results will be further investigated in future clinical studies.