Investigation of the potential adverse effects of chemicals and drugs is essential during the drug development process. In vitro cell model systems have been developed over the past years towards such toxicity investigation. 96-well plate is the common platform for screening drug toxicity due to its simplicity. However, this platform only offers 2D cell culture environment and lacks the flow of solutions

Zinc pyrithione (ZPT) is the antimicrobial substance and has been applied for various fields, including non-fouling coating paints and cosmetics. It also used for the tub part of the electronic machine with polypropylene (PP). Since the released ZPT can cause skeletal deformity or abnormality to coastal organisms, it is essential to quality check of ZPT in PP for environmental safety. However, as far

Tumors in vivo exist in a microenvironment, so-called tumor microenvironment (TME), which includes peripheral blood vessels, immune cells, fibroblasts, signalling molecules and extracellular matrix. In recent years, considerable efforts have been focused on developing bioprinting methods because 3D bioprinting can better recapitulate TMEs by accurately printing different types of TME cells in spatially

Warfarin is a drug associated with blood clotting. As the side effects of this drug are fatal, it is important to adjust its dosage for each individual. In particular, DNA analysis of patients is necessary because the effect of the drug varies greatly depending on the genotype of the individual. Real-time PCR technology is usually used for DNA analysis. This technology requires expensive equipment

Macrophages are an important component of the immune system and play a key role in tissue damage repair and immune defense. As a potential biomarker, macrophages contribute to the early diagnosis and therapy of cancer and other disease. The isolation of macrophages is a key step in relevant research and clinical applications. However, conventional macrophage separation and purification methods rely

Cell free DNA (cfDNA) is degraded DNA fragments found in the blood plasma of cancer patients. While cfDNA is a good marker for early diagnostics and cancer prognosis, the extraction of cfDNA from whole blood and sample preparation for later sequencing is still challenging. Here, we presented a microfluidic device for the removal of cells from a cfDNA sample in a first step. In a second step, carboxylated

There are many factors that affect the increase or decrease of viscosity of the whole blood. Because of this, measuring the viscosity of whole blood is difficult to correlate with specific etiologies, so it tends to disregard the information on blood viscosity. This study is to find out the characteristics of the method of measuring the viscosity of whole blood using the parallel plate method, which

The early detection of mercury ions in water sources should be emphasized to prevent human exposure to mercury through drinking water or food consumption. Here, we used a three-dimensional (3D)-printed multiarray chip to achieve colorimetric detection of inorganic mercury ions in environmental matrices such as lake water. The chip designed for the multidetection of inorganic mercury did not require

Despite the diverse roles of singlet oxygen (1O2) in plants and animals, simple detection of 1O2 has been limited due to technical difficulties. Here we report a colorimetric method for visualizing the generation and suppression of 1O2 using a protein photo-sensitizer, mini singlet oxygen generator (miniSOG). Upon external light irradiation, miniSOG strongly produced 1O2 and oxidized a universal chromogenic

Nanoscale electrokinetic phenomenon called ion concentration polarization (ICP) has opened a new era in bio- and chemical-analysis platform due to its high efficiency and easy sample handling. In this review, the most recent advancements of selective preconcentration process using ICP were introduced. The flux balances of charged analytes were theoretically analyzed so that the behavior and the shape

Although vast research has been performed on biosensors, the materialization of low-cost point-of-care (POC) biosensors exhibiting portability, user-friendliness, and highly reliable analytical performance has not yet been achieved. The utilization of electronic/optoelectronic components and devices as signal transducers is being studied as a promising approach for the development of ideal POC biosensors

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanomaterials are well known for converting near-infrared (NIR) excitation photons into visible, ultraviolet, and NIR emission photons. Excitation of NIR light offers low autofluorescence background and high penetration depth in biological environments due to the reduced light scattering. Consequently, these have attracted considerable interest because their exceptional

Despite the stereotype that secondary flow fields induced by surface grooves are effective for microfluidic mixing and increase the entropy of different fluid flows, many efforts have been made to utilize the grooves for particle separation and focusing, decreasing the entropy of particle distribution. As part of these efforts, hydrophoresis has been proposed to define deterministic particle trajectories

Lipid membranes and their applications in analytical biochip devices represent a great tool for the study of membrane dynamics and the related biological phenomena. Lipid-membrane-assisted surface-sensitive sensors have employed to provide biological information as they improve molecular survivability as well as rule out incorrect signals arising from unwanted nonspecific binding between target molecules

Due to the global aging at an accelerated rate, demands for medical implants have been rapidly increasing. Consequently, a number of complications associated with medical implants has been reported. The complication is mainly due to foreign body response (FBR) which is a nonspecific immune response. Once the implants inserted inside the body, the immune system recognize the implant as foreign body

The pancreas is a relatively small organ, but it has structural and functional complexity that makes it difficult to understand underlying disease mechanisms and determine effective treatments. Thus, there is a great need for more effective tools to study pancreatic disease, and breakthroughs in various fields have contributed to development of in vitro tissue models to understand the pathophysiological

Several types of biosensors have been developed to detect a wide variety of human diseases. Immunosensors are classified as the most representative of all biosensors. They are based on antibodies that selectively recognize specific analytes and have high specificity and sensitivity. However, there are limitations to the types of substances that can be detected, and it is sometimes difficult to achieve

Real-time monitoring of biomarkers has important applications in immediately determining, for example, disease progress or therapeutic effects to clinical decisions in the fields of diagnosis, prognosis and therapy. However, technologies developed in this area require frequent sample drawings, unattended analysis in situ, secure online monitoring, and, above all, patient’s safety, so from this point

Infectious diseases and their pandemics periodically attract public interests due to difficulty in treating the patients and the consequent high mortality. Sepsis caused by an imbalanced systemic inflammatory response to infection often leads to organ failure and death. The current therapeutic intervention mainly includes “the sepsis bundles,” antibiotics (antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal)

The use of colorimetric bioassays for protein detection is one of the most promising diagnostic approaches, but their relatively poor detection limits have been a critical issue. In this study, we developed an efficient colorimetric bioassay based on antibody-coated peroxidase-mimicking Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) for the detection of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), which is one of the most widely used

Sensitive detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is highly important in clinical diagnosis because CEA is an effective tumor marker associated with gastric, lung, rectal, and breast cancers. Thus, the development of an accurate, simple, and efficient method for the detection of CEA remains a long-term clinical goal. In this study, a liquid crystal-based aptasensor was constructed for the labelfree

The aim of this review is to discuss label-free and real-time assays characterizing the electrical impedance of cells for biomedical and pharmacological applications. Electrical impedance measurements can be used to non-destructively monitor cellular behavior by analyzing the electrical cell-substrate impedance, which is determined by cellular morphology and distribution on the sensing electrode. Cellular

The current diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) relies on laboratory-based tests since its clinical features are nonspecific, unlike other respiratory pathogens. Therefore, the development of a rapid and simple method for on-site detection of SARS-CoV is crucial for the identification and prevention of future SARS outbreaks. In this study, a simple colorimetric

Here, we developed Sol-gel based antibody microarray platform for quantitative detection of five different cancer biomarkers in clinical sample simultaneously. This kit called Ci-5, Multiplex Tumor Marker Quantitative Kit, is developed based on proprietary SG Cap™ technology. The Ci-5 has 3×5 format of microarray that contains five different antibodies for capturing multi-targets cancer biomarkers

Patients with diabetes are required to lance their fingers daily for self-monitoring their blood glucose level. Patients might be reluctant to use commercial lancets with thick outer diameters due to lancing pain; this results in the worsening of their health. A metallic microneedle is an ideal substitute to the commercial lancet system and offers a minimally invasive and patient friendly approach

Although silver (Ag)-based nanoparticles (NPs) are frequently used for bactericidal purposes, they have critical issues including excessive release of Ag+, severe oxidation, and cytotoxicity. In this study, we designed a multifunctional, on-demand antibacterial agent by successively encapsulating bimetallic gold/silver nanorods (Ag/AgNRs) with mesoporous silica (mSiO2) shells. Au/AuNRs were synthesized

Previous culture techniques are often ineffective for providing appropriate conditions to cells grown in vitro for efficient growth and maturation. However, the advent of microfluidic chips allows us to manipulate various factors from co-culturing cells to inducing shear stress and biochemical gradient. The above have all been effectively applied to stem cell engineering, allowing dynamic interactions

This article describes a passive micromixer that utilizes an air-liquid interface and surface tension effects to enhance fluid mixing via convection and Marangoni effects. Performance of the microfluidic component is tested within a passive-pumping-based device that consists of three microchannels connected in succession using passive micro-mixers. Mixing was quantified at 5 key points along the length