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Biosensing for Interfacial Science

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2018) | Viewed by 35096

Special Issue Editors

School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Interests: biosensing, hydrogel tissue engineering, biopharmaceuticals and drug delivery.
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Stanford University, School of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Interests: acoustic sensors, nanoplasmonic sensors, proteins, lipid vesicles, surface functionalization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Biosensing plays a critical role in facilitating the detection and analysis of biomacromolecules such as proteins, lipid bilayers, and nucleic acids. Some of the most exciting developments concern interfacial science topics and surface-based biosensors continually evolve for advanced fundamental and translational research applications. This Special Issue focuses on biosensing applications in the interfacial sciences. A wealth of new sensor technologies have been developed in recent years, including in the areas of optical, piezoelectric, electrochemical, and fluorescent detection methods. In addition, surface functionalization strategies have greatly advanced, enabling increased sensitivity and specificity for detecting molecular recognition events. Works presenting novel demonstrations of biosensors for interfacial science applications as well as introducing improved surface functionalization methods will be broadly welcome.

We welcome submissions from any area of biosensing, provided that interfacial science concepts are involved in sensor design or use. Both research papers and review articles will be considered. If you are interested in contributing to this Special Issue, we would very much appreciate receiving the tentative title of your contribution.

Prof. Dr. Nam-Joon Cho
Dr. Joshua A. Jackman
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. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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

  • optical sensors, piezoelectric sensors, electrochemical sensors, fluorescent sensors

  • nanoplasmonics

  • biomacromolecules

  • proteins

  • lipid bilayers

  • nucleic acids

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

10 pages, 1780 KiB  
Article
Prospective Use of High-Refractive Index Materials for Single Molecule Detection in Flow Cytometry
by Joshua A. Welsh, Julia Kepley, Ariel Rosner, Peter Horak, Jay A. Berzofsky and Jennifer C. Jones
Sensors 2018, 18(8), 2461; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18082461 - 01 Aug 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 3411
Abstract
Phenotyping extracellular vesicles (EVs), where surface receptor expression is often as low as one molecule per EV, remains problematic due to the inability of commercial flow cytometers to provide single-fluorescent molecule sensitivity. While EVs are widely considered to be of great potential as [...] Read more.
Phenotyping extracellular vesicles (EVs), where surface receptor expression is often as low as one molecule per EV, remains problematic due to the inability of commercial flow cytometers to provide single-fluorescent molecule sensitivity. While EVs are widely considered to be of great potential as diagnostic, prognostic and theranostic biomarkers, their use is currently hindered by the lack of tools available to accurately and reproducibly enumerate and phenotype them. Herein, we propose a new class of labels that leverage the biophysical properties of materials with unique complex refractive indices and demonstrate that this class of labels has the possibility of allowing single-epitope detection using conventional flow cytometry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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14 pages, 2324 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Comparison of Protein Adsorption and Conformational Changes on Dielectric-Coated Nanoplasmonic Sensing Arrays
by Abdul Rahim Ferhan, Joshua A. Jackman, Tun Naw Sut and Nam-Joon Cho
Sensors 2018, 18(4), 1283; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18041283 - 22 Apr 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 5754
Abstract
Nanoplasmonic sensors are a popular, surface-sensitive measurement tool to investigate biomacromolecular interactions at solid-liquid interfaces, opening the door to a wide range of applications. In addition to high surface sensitivity, nanoplasmonic sensors have versatile surface chemistry options as plasmonic metal nanoparticles can be [...] Read more.
Nanoplasmonic sensors are a popular, surface-sensitive measurement tool to investigate biomacromolecular interactions at solid-liquid interfaces, opening the door to a wide range of applications. In addition to high surface sensitivity, nanoplasmonic sensors have versatile surface chemistry options as plasmonic metal nanoparticles can be coated with thin dielectric layers. Within this scope, nanoplasmonic sensors have demonstrated promise for tracking protein adsorption and substrate-induced conformational changes on oxide film-coated arrays, although existing studies have been limited to single substrates. Herein, we investigated human serum albumin (HSA) adsorption onto silica- and titania-coated arrays of plasmonic gold nanodisks by localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) measurements and established an analytical framework to compare responses across multiple substrates with different sensitivities. While similar responses were recorded on the two substrates for HSA adsorption under physiologically-relevant ionic strength conditions, distinct substrate-specific behavior was observed at lower ionic strength conditions. With decreasing ionic strength, larger measurement responses occurred for HSA adsorption onto silica surfaces, whereas HSA adsorption onto titania surfaces occurred independently of ionic strength condition. Complementary quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation (QCM-D) measurements were also performed, and the trend in adsorption behavior was similar. Of note, the magnitudes of the ionic strength-dependent LSPR and QCM-D measurement responses varied, and are discussed with respect to the measurement principle and surface sensitivity of each technique. Taken together, our findings demonstrate how the high surface sensitivity of nanoplasmonic sensors can be applied to quantitatively characterize protein adsorption across multiple surfaces, and outline broadly-applicable measurement strategies for biointerfacial science applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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27 pages, 8500 KiB  
Article
Three Dimensional Distribution of Sensitive Field and Stress Field Inversion of Force Sensitive Materials under Constant Current Excitation
by Shuanfeng Zhao, Min Liu, Wei Guo and Chuanwei Zhang
Sensors 2018, 18(3), 722; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18030722 - 28 Feb 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4391
Abstract
Force sensitive conductive composite materials are functional materials which can be used as the sensitive material of force sensors. However, the existing sensors only use one-dimensional electrical properties of force sensitive conductive materials. Even in tactile sensors, the measurement of contact pressure is [...] Read more.
Force sensitive conductive composite materials are functional materials which can be used as the sensitive material of force sensors. However, the existing sensors only use one-dimensional electrical properties of force sensitive conductive materials. Even in tactile sensors, the measurement of contact pressure is achieved by large-scale arrays and the units of a large-scale array are also based on the one-dimensional electrical properties of force sensitive materials. The main contribution of this work is to study the three-dimensional electrical properties and the inversion method of three-dimensional stress field of a force sensitive material (conductive rubber), which pushes the application of force sensitive material from one dimensional to three-dimensional. First, the mathematical model of the conductive rubber current field distribution under a constant force is established by the effective medium theory, and the current field distribution model of conductive rubber with different geometry, conductive rubber content and conductive rubber relaxation parameters is deduced. Secondly, the inversion method of the three-dimensional stress field of conductive rubber is established, which provides a theoretical basis for the design of a new tactile sensor, three-dimensional stress field and space force based on force sensitive materials. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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13 pages, 3385 KiB  
Article
Hydrogel-Based Fluorescent Dual pH and Oxygen Sensors Loaded in 96-Well Plates for High-Throughput Cell Metabolism Studies
by Shanshan Wu, Siying Wu, Zheyuan Yi, Fei Zeng, Weizhen Wu, Yuan Qiao, Xingzhong Zhao, Xing Cheng and Yanqing Tian
Sensors 2018, 18(2), 564; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18020564 - 13 Feb 2018
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7413
Abstract
In this study, we developed fluorescent dual pH and oxygen sensors loaded in multi-well plates for in-situ and high-throughput monitoring of oxygen respiration and extracellular acidification during microbial cell growth for understanding metabolism. Biocompatible PHEMA-co-PAM materials were used as the hydrogel matrix. A [...] Read more.
In this study, we developed fluorescent dual pH and oxygen sensors loaded in multi-well plates for in-situ and high-throughput monitoring of oxygen respiration and extracellular acidification during microbial cell growth for understanding metabolism. Biocompatible PHEMA-co-PAM materials were used as the hydrogel matrix. A polymerizable oxygen probe (OS2) derived from PtTFPP and a polymerizable pH probe (S2) derived from fluorescein were chemically conjugated into the matrix to solve the problem of the probe leaching from the matrix. Gels were allowed to cure directly on the bottom of 96-well plates at room-temperature via redox polymerization. The influence of matrix’s composition on the sensing behaviors was investigated to optimize hydrogels with enough robustness for repeatable use with good sensitivity. Responses of the dual sensing hydrogels to dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH were studied. These dual oxygen-pH sensing plates were successfully used for microbial cell-based screening assays, which are based on the measurement of fluorescence intensity changes induced by cellular oxygen consumption and pH changes during microbial growth. This method may provide a real-time monitoring of cellular respiration, acidification, and a rapid kinetic assessment of multiple samples for cell viability as well as high-throughput drug screening. All of these assays can be carried out by a conventional plate reader. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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10 pages, 3661 KiB  
Article
Fast Focal Point Correction in Prism-Coupled Total Internal Reflection Scanning Imager Using an Electronically Tunable Lens
by Chenggang Zhu, Bilin Ge, Ru Chen, Xiangdong Zhu, Lan Mi, Jiong Ma, Xu Wang, Fengyun Zheng and Yiyan Fei
Sensors 2018, 18(2), 524; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18020524 - 09 Feb 2018
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3975
Abstract
Total internal reflection (TIR) is useful for interrogating physical and chemical processes that occur at the interface between two transparent media. Yet prism-coupled TIR imaging microscopes suffer from limited sensing areas due to the fact that the interface (the object plane) is not [...] Read more.
Total internal reflection (TIR) is useful for interrogating physical and chemical processes that occur at the interface between two transparent media. Yet prism-coupled TIR imaging microscopes suffer from limited sensing areas due to the fact that the interface (the object plane) is not perpendicular to the optical axis of the microscope. In this paper, we show that an electrically tunable lens can be used to rapidly and reproducibly correct the focal length of an oblique-incidence scanning microscope (OI-RD) in a prism-coupled TIR geometry. We demonstrate the performance of such a correction by acquiring an image of a protein microarray over a scan area of 4 cm2 with an effective resolution of less than 20 microns. The electronic focal length tuning eliminates the mechanical movement of the illumination lens in the scanning microscope and in turn the noise and background drift associated with the motion. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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2416 KiB  
Article
A Human Body Pressure Distribution Imaging System Based on Wavelet Analysis and Resistance Tomography
by Shuanfeng Zhao, Wenbo Wang, Wei Guo and Chuanwei Zhang
Sensors 2017, 17(11), 2634; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s17112634 - 15 Nov 2017
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3348
Abstract
In this paper, a pressure distribution sensing system based on wavelet analysis and resistance tomography is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of a traditional electrode type pressure distribution sensor, which needs to be arranged with many electrodes and has a high production cost. [...] Read more.
In this paper, a pressure distribution sensing system based on wavelet analysis and resistance tomography is proposed to overcome the shortcomings of a traditional electrode type pressure distribution sensor, which needs to be arranged with many electrodes and has a high production cost. The system uses ADS1256, a constant current source module, a serial communication module, a Raspberry host, a touch screen, and other components. The wavelet transform is used to preprocess the collected signal to improve the anti-jamming performance of the system. The method of resistance tomography is used to realize the real-time imaging of pressure distribution. Finally, the reliability of the system is verified using conductive silica gel as a sensitive material. The experimental results show that wavelet analysis preprocessing can significantly improve the quality of pressure distribution imaging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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Review

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17 pages, 6741 KiB  
Review
From Protein Features to Sensing Surfaces
by Greta Faccio
Sensors 2018, 18(4), 1204; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s18041204 - 15 Apr 2018
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 6284
Abstract
Proteins play a major role in biosensors in which they provide catalytic activity and specificity in molecular recognition. However, the immobilization process is far from straightforward as it often affects the protein functionality. Extensive interaction of the protein with the surface or significant [...] Read more.
Proteins play a major role in biosensors in which they provide catalytic activity and specificity in molecular recognition. However, the immobilization process is far from straightforward as it often affects the protein functionality. Extensive interaction of the protein with the surface or significant surface crowding can lead to changes in the mobility and conformation of the protein structure. This review will provide insights as to how an analysis of the physico-chemical features of the protein surface before the immobilization process can help to identify the optimal immobilization approach. Such an analysis can help to preserve the functionality of the protein when on a biosensor surface. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biosensing for Interfacial Science)
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