Highly biocompatible Co@Silica@meso-Silica magnetic nanocarriers

Stretchable Liquid Metal-Based Metal-Polymer Conductors for Fully Screen-Printed Biofuel Cells

We reported a straightforward and low-cost method to fabricate stretchable biofuel cells by using liquid metal-based metal-polymer conductors. The liquid-metal-based metal-polymer conductors had a conductivity of 2.7 × 10⁵ S/m and a stretchability larger than 200%, giving the biofuel cell good conformability to the skin. The glucose biofuel cells (BFCs) yielded a maximum power density as 14.11 μW/cm² at 0.31 V with 0.2 mM glucose, while the lactate BFCs reached 31.00 μW/cm² at 0.51 V with 15 mM lactate. The results of 24 h short circuit current density showed that, with enough biofuel, this patch could be used over the course of an entire day for wearable sensors.

Magnetic mesoporous silica nanospheres with dual probe & release fluorescent functionality

The combination of different nanomaterials through step-by-step synthesis procedures has turned into a promising alternative to fabricate high-quality nanosystems in order to satisfy the increasingly demanding requirements of the biomedical field. In this work, we report a detailed study on the synthesis and characterization of a complex nanosystem composed of nanoparticles with a single magnetic nanoparticle core and a shell of dense and mesoporous silica arranged in layers. The procedure designed to fabricate these systems lead us to the formation of a dispersion of non-agglomerated spherical nanoparticles of nearly 100 nm. The structural characterization performed over the final samples confirmed both the prevalence of single-core systems and the presence of the mesoporous silica shell in the outer layer. The performance of the nanosystem in a specific technological application was tested by sequentially loading two different fluorescents molecules by covalent and non-covalent bonding strategies. Due to the distinct loading strategies, the resulting nanosystem presented a magnetically-assisted probe & release functionality as analyzed in a magnetophoretic experiment.

Lateral and Vertical Flow Assays for Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Lateral flow assays (LFAs) have been the pillar of rapid point-of-care (POC) diagnostics due to their simplicity, rapid process, and low cost. Recent advances in sensitivity, selectivity, and chemical stability enhancement have ensured the foothold of LFAs in commercial POC diagnostics. This paper reviews recent developments in labeling strategies and detection methods of LFAs. Moreover, vertical flow assays (VFAs) have emerged as an alternate paper-based assay due to faster detection time and unique multiplexing capabilities. Smartphones as LFA readers have been transformed into a universal integrated platform for imaging, data processing, and storage, providing quantitative results in low-resource settings. Commercial LFAs and VFAs products are evaluated with regards to their performance, market trends, and regulatory issues. The future outlook of the flow-based assays for POC diagnostics is also discussed.