Nanophotonic systems leverage light field manipulation and strong modal confinement at the nanoscale level to implement sensitive biosensing schemes. The interplay between affinity layers and the surface passivation strategies are essential to transform these conceptual devices into powerful technologies for sensitive and selective biosensors of target analytes (cancer biomarkers, cytokines, ions, proteins, exosomes, antibodies, mRNA, etc.) from a biological fluid, which is of great relevance to clinical diagnosis. Most importantly, nanophotonic biosensors achieved detection limits that surpass other non-optical methods.

The scope of this Special Issue is to amass research in nanophotonic biosensors, with an emphasis on works that demonstrate the potential translational aspect to challenging realistic environments and those that demonstrate high-level integration with supporting technologies. In this regard, we welcome submissions that involve the following topics:

• Use of nanophotonic systems (plasmonics, photonic crystals, structured optical fibers, waveguide, etc.) for the detection of analytes in biological fluids (tear, saliva, urine, plasma, whole blood, etc.);

• Robust fabrication methods of nanophotonic systems indicative of a strong translational potential for deployment;

• System-level integration of nanophotonic devices with portable readout optical systems for point of care applications;

• Biosensing with nanophotonic systems that incorporate benchmark studies with gold standards (ELISA, PCR, HPLC, etc.);

• Integrated nanophotonics–microfluidics integration for combined on-chip sample preparation and sensing.

Dr. Abraham Vázquez-Guardado

Dr. Lip Ket Chin

Guest Editors

Link 

Photonic biosensors showing superior sensitivity are ideal for the detection of both biomolecules (e.g. proteins, nucleic acid, extracellular vesicles, exosomes) and bioparticles (e.g. viruses, bacteria, cells, protozoa) with flexible detection mechanisms, including label-free methods (absorbance, colorimetry, refractive index change), fluorescence, chemifluorescence, chemiluminescence, etc. Recent advancements of photonic biosensors especially with the synergy of microfluidic, deep learning, metamaterial technologies have demonstrated ultra-high sensitivity, accuracy and rapid detection time. It has enabled groundbreaking researches especially in detecting and analyzing sample heterogeneity (down to single bioparticle or biomolecule) for rare biomarker discoveries and antimicrobial resistance studies.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together a collection of papers that used optical and photonic technologies to innovate biosensors for point-of-care disease diagnosis, microbial detection in food and water monitoring, antimicrobial resistance studies, etc. This topic covers research ranging from fundamental discoveries to technology advancement and translational applications.

We welcome the submission of manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following topics:

•  Photonic, plasmonic and metamaterial-based biosensors

•  Photonic biomedical devices for point-of-care disease diagnosis

•  Photonic biosensors for food and water monitoring

•  Novel optical biosensors for antimicrobial resistance research

Keywords: Biosensors, photonics, biomedical applications, environmental monitoring, antimicrobial resistance

Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Dr. Lip Ket Chin

Dr. Eduardo Fernandez

Dr. Fei Deng

Editors

Link