Materials
Rapid testing kits are the most commonly available sensors that use nanomaterials for biosensing.
of these include metal oxide nanoparticles, nanowires and DNA or RNA-based biosensors. Advancements in nanomaterials promise improvements in biosensors’ catalytic efficiency (how well they speed up a chemical reaction), specificity and biocompatibility. Take nanozymes, for instance. These are nanomaterials that mimic the presence of enzymes. Whereas enzymes need to be stored under the right conditions and degrade over time, neither of those constraints apply to nanozymes. Additionally, Estrela says, “Using nanostructures or nanoparticles to catalyse specific analytes is promising because we don’t need to fabricate the electrodes or add any biology to it.” However, there is a need for precise control over the conditions under which the measurement is performed. One active area of research is enhancing the sensitivity of nanomaterial-based biosensors to be able to detect single molecules. This will enable the detection of trace elements and reveal structural interactions of biomolecules. Multiplexed biosensing, or being able to simultaneously detect different analytes, is another frontier that could revolutionise precision medicine. Designing biosensors that eliminate molecular noise and cross-interference from different analytes will help realise these possibilities. “One of the main advances in recent times has been creating nanostructured electrodes that have a very high density of probes,” says Estrela. These involve using nanomaterials to add or carve out nanoscale structures on electrode surfaces. Compared to conventional electrodes, nanostructured electrodes achieve lower limits of detection and wider dynamic ranges.
But new nanomaterials may improve biosensors in ways beyond detecting, amplifying, or transducing signals. For example, they could also help reduce power consumption, which is key in developing wearable or implantable biosensors. “This relies on advances in electronics, which in turn take advantage of nanoscale phenomena,” says Cass.
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Scaling nanomaterial biosensors As is often the case, technology adoption is influenced by factors beyond the technology itself. For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic strengthened the case for wider clinical use of commercially available biosensors. “I think the push toward telemedicine and [users’] acceptance of testing themselves is going to change the number of biosensor tests that are going to be out there,” says Estrela. Nanomaterial-based biosensing could usher in the development of diagnostic kits for a range of different medical use cases but, Estrela adds, they need to be easy to use and affordable. This underlies the need for slashing the cost of producing nanomaterials. While researchers are fashioning a host of new nanomaterials and applying them to ever-new use cases, most are hard to produce at scale. Researchers are investigating ways to bring down the costs of generating nanomaterials, including producing them in microbes or using microfluidics to make synthesis more efficient and reproducible. However, these approaches are still in their
infancy, and production costs need to drop significantly for these technologies to be adopted at scale. Equally, for new nanomaterial-based biosensing technologies to successfully translate to commercially available sensors, they will need to replicate performance metrics achieved in the lab when they’re produced at scale.
Here, scaling the synthesis of nanomaterials alone
isn’t enough, as nanomaterials are only part of what makes a biosensing system. “For each component of the system, you try and pick properties that match the clinical diagnostic need, and the components have to be manufacturable and come in at the right price point and pass all the regulatory barriers,” says Cass. Nanomaterials are poised to have a huge impact on how biosensors are designed and what they are used for. But, stresses Cass, “it’s the whole systems approach that’s really important.” ●
Medical Device Developments /
www.medicaldevice-developments.com
Sergio
HayashiShutterstock.com
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