Nanomembrane‐Based,Thermal‐Transport Biosensor for Living Cells

Knowledge of materials' thermal‐transport properties, conductivity and diffusivity, is crucial for several applications within areas of biology, material science and engineering. Specifically, a microsized, flexible, biologically integrated thermal transport sensor is beneficial to a plethora of applications, ranging across plants physiological ecology and thermal imaging and treatment of cancerous cells, to thermal dissipation in flexible semiconductors and thermoelectrics. Living cells pose extra challenges, due to their small volumes and irregular curvilinear shapes. Here a novel approach of simultaneously measuring thermal conductivity and diffusivity of different materials and its applicability to single cells is demonstrated. This technique is based on increasing phonon‐boundary‐scattering rate in nanomembranes, having extremely low flexural rigidities, to induce a considerable spectral dependence of the bandgap‐emission over excitation‐laser intensity. It is demonstrated that once in contact with organic or inorganic materials, the nanomembranes' emission spectrally shift based on the material's thermal diffusivity and conductivity. This NM‐based technique is further applied to differentiate between different types and subtypes of cancer cells, based on their thermal‐transport properties. It is anticipated that this novel technique to enable an efficient single‐cell thermal targeting, allow better modeling of cellular thermal distribution and enable novel diagnostic techniques based on variations of single‐cell thermal‐transport properties.     

Chirality‐Based Biosensors

The fabrication of chiral nanostructures gives rise to characteristic chiroptical activity, which can be used for chirality‐based biosensors. Great progress is made in the use of nanoassemblies for the construction of chiral nanoparticle dimers, pyramids, helices, and twisted structures, and their chiroptical activities correlate with diverse structural geometries and enantiomeric configurations. In DNA‐hybridization‐based chiral nanoassemblies, the assembly parameters, such as the components, gaps, multicomponents, and the aftergrowth of metal, can result in multiple bands and enhanced chiroptical effects. Based on known chiral nanostructures, the existing chiral nanoassembly‐based biosensors together with their targets and signal amplification strategies are reviewed. Chirality involves multiple signals, and multitarget biosensors are introduced with newly developed chiral architectures for the accurate and reliable monitoring of biomarkers in living cells. The interactions between chiral nanoarchitectures and biosystems are also highlighted, which are important not only in the chiral dynamic switching of nano‐objects for biomonitoring, but also in manipulating cell growth, proliferation, and adhesion. The future perspectives on chiral fabrication and its use in biosensors are also comprehensively discussed.     

生物传感技术在食品中重金属检测中的应用进展

食品重金属污染事件常见报道,重金属在人体内积累后,可通过干扰人体蛋白质和酶的运输而产生生理毒性。因此,重金属的检测对于保障食品安全具有重要意义。近年来,生物传感检测技术因其方法构建灵活、特异性强、检测效率高和易于便携化等优点,广泛应用于临床诊断、药物分析、环境检测和食品安全领域。尤其在食品中重金属污染的检测中,生物传感方法可提供灵活多变的检测策略,且易于实现现场快速检测。本文总结了食品重金属污染的传统检测方法和新型检测方法,重点介绍了荧光、表面增强拉曼、电化学、场效应晶体管等生物传感器的优缺点,为食品中重金属污染物的检测和控制提供参考,同时也有助于促进检测新技术的发展,为规范食品安全和提高食品质量提供新思路。     

Non‐Toxic Dry‐Coated Nanosilver for Plasmonic Biosensors

The plasmonic properties of noble metals facilitate their use for in vivo bio‐applications such as targeted drug delivery and cancer cell therapy. Nanosilver is best suited for such applications as it has the lowest plasmonic losses among all such materials in the UV‐visible spectrum. Its toxicity, however, can destroy surrounding healthy tissues and thus, hinders its safe use. Here, that toxicity against a model biological system (Escherichia coli) is “cured” or blocked by coating nanosilver hermetically with a about 2 nm thin SiO₂ layer in one‐step by a scalable flame aerosol method followed by swirl injection of a silica precursor vapor (hexamethyldisiloxane) without reducing the plasmonic performance of the enclosed or encapsulated silver nanoparticles (20–40 nm in diameter as determined by X‐ray diffraction and microscopy). This creates the opportunity to safely use powerful nanosilver for intracellular bio‐applications. The label‐free biosensing and surface bio‐functionalization of these ready‐to‐use, non‐toxic (benign) Ag nanoparticles is presented by measuring the adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA) in a model sensing experiment. Furthermore, the silica coating around nanosilver prevents its agglomeration or flocculation (as determined by thermal annealing, optical absorption spectroscopy and microscopy) and thus, enhances its biosensitivity, including bioimaging as determined by dark field illumination.     

Encapsulation of urease in double‐layered hydrogels of macroporous poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) core and poly(ethylene oxide) outer layer: fabrication and biosensing properties

Double‐layered hydrogels of super‐macroporous poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) cryogel core and poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) hydrogel outer layer for encapsulation of the enzyme urease were constructed. The enzyme was entrapped into the pores of PHEMA cryogel by soaking and then the core was covered with a PEO layer. The leaking of urease from the core was prevented when the density of the PEO network was increased by incorporation of the crosslinking agent, poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate. The hybrid system exhibited a nearly constant enzyme activity with time and maintained its structural integrity after several reactions of hydrolysis of urea. The potential of double‐layered hydrogels containing urease for establishment of water pollution with copper was investigated as well. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry