Abstract:
Biosensing devices such as lateral flow assays, blood glucose test strips or wearable
continuous glucose monitoring systems have had a great impact on healthcare for more
than half a century and have already improved our living standards. In particular, biosensors
allow us to measure clinically relevant biomarkers from various sample matrices (including
whole blood, plasma, saliva, or urine) in a fast, cost-effective, and user-friendly manner. Hence,
biosensing technologies can provide vital information related to the propensity for illness or the
status of a disease, or its treatment monitoring. However, there are still some challenges,
especially regarding the sample Research Topic and preparation as well as the biosensing
performance of diagnostic devices (Ates et al., 2021).
To further assess the potential of this technology, researchers are pushing forward the
frontiers of integrated biosensors, combining the sample Research Topic, preparation,
analysis, and data evaluation, to create “sample-in-answer-out” diagnostic devices. Such
integrated solutions for biosensing could enable real-time, highly sensitive, and selective
quantification of various biomolecules within clinically relevant body fluids in a smart,
sustainable, interoperable, and portable manner.
This Research Topic gathers innovative approaches for integrated biosensing systems
conceived from colleagues located in diverse parts of the world, including Australia, China,
Denmark, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Several clinically relevant agents
are targeted, including respiratory viruses (Fan et al.), interleukin-6 (a biomarker of inflammatory
associated diseases) (Rahbar et al.), biomarkers related to gastric cancer (Liu et al.), dengue
serotypes (Moser et al.), SARS-CoV-2 virus (Lin et al.; Ngoc et al.), and carbohydrate antigen 50 (a
non–organ-specific tumor biomarker for screening several cancers) (Liu et al.). All of them were
presented with (potential) clinical applications at the point-of-care. In particular:
Fan et al. integrated recombinase aided amplification (a novel isothermal amplification
method targeting the genetic material of various pathogens) and quantitative polymerase chain
reaction (qPCR) in order to detect respiratory viruses (ADV3 and ADV7). A conventional qPCR
