scholarly journals Nanotechnology in emerging liquid biopsy applications

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina P. Kalogianni

AbstractLiquid biopsy is considered as the most attractive alternative to traditional tissue biopsies. The major advantages of this approach lie in the non-invasive procedure, the rapidness of sample collection and the potential for early cancer diagnosis and real-time monitoring of the disease and the treatment response. Nanotechnology has dynamically emerged in a wide range of applications in the field of liquid biopsy. The benefits of using nanomaterials for biosensing include high sensitivity and detectability, simplicity in many cases, rapid analysis, the low cost of the analysis and the potential for portability and personalized medicine. The present paper reports on the nanomaterial-based methods and biosensors that have been developed for liquid biopsy applications. Most of the nanomaterials used exhibit great analytical performance; moreover, extremely low limits of detection have been achieved for all studied targets. This review will provide scientists with a comprehensive overview of all the nanomaterials and techniques that have been developed for liquid biopsy applications. A comparison of the developed methods in terms of detectability, dynamic range, time-length of the analysis and multiplicity, is also provided.

2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 481-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian T. Cunningham ◽  
Peter Li ◽  
Stephen Schulz ◽  
Bo Lin ◽  
Cheryl Baird ◽  
...  

Screening of biochemical interactions becomes simpler, less expensive, and more accurate when labels, such as fluorescent dyes, radioactive markers, and colorimetric reactions, are not required to quantify detected material. SRU Biosystems has developed a biosensor technology that is manufactured on continuous sheets of plastic film and incorporated into standard microplates and microarray slides to enable label-free assays to be performed with high throughput, high sensitivity, and low cost per assay. The biosensor incorporates a narrow band guided-mode resonance reflectance filter, in which the reflected color is modulated by the attachment/detachment of biochemical material to the surface. The technology offers 4 orders of linear dynamic range and uniformity within a plate, with a coefficient of variation of 2.5%. Using conventional biochemical immobilization surface chemistries, a wide range of assay applications are enabled. Small molecule screening, cell proliferation/cytotoxicity, enzyme activity screening, protein-protein interaction, and cell membrane receptor expression are among the applications demonstrated.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2274
Author(s):  
Filippo Pelizzaro ◽  
Romilda Cardin ◽  
Barbara Penzo ◽  
Elisa Pinto ◽  
Alessandro Vitale ◽  
...  

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer related death worldwide. Diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers are urgently needed in order to improve patient survival. Indeed, the most widely used biomarkers, such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), have limited accuracy as both diagnostic and prognostic tests. Liver biopsy provides an insight on the biology of the tumor, but it is an invasive procedure, not routinely used, and not representative of the whole neoplasia due to the demonstrated intra-tumoral heterogeneity. In recent years, liquid biopsy, defined as the molecular analysis of cancer by-products, released by the tumor in the bloodstream, emerged as an appealing source of new biomarkers. Several studies focused on evaluating extracellular vesicles, circulating tumor cells, cell-free DNA and non-coding RNA as novel reliable biomarkers. In this review, we aimed to provide a comprehensive overview on the most relevant available evidence on novel circulating biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognostic stratification, and therapeutic monitoring. Liquid biopsy seems to be a very promising instrument and, in the near future, some of these new non-invasive tools will probably change the clinical management of HCC patients.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Srinivas Swaroop Kolla ◽  
Ram S. Mohan ◽  
Ovadia Shoham

Abstract The Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC©*) is a simple, compact and low-cost separator, which provides an economically attractive alternative to conventional gravity-based separators over a wide range of applications. More than 6,500 GLCC©'s have been installed in the field to date around the world over the past 2 decades. The GLCC© inlet section design is a key parameter, which is crucial for its performance and proper operation. The flow behavior in the GLCC© body is highly dependent on the fluid velocities generated at the reduced area nozzle inlet. An earlier study (Kolla et al. [1]) recommended design modifications to the inlet section, based on safety and structural robustness. It is important to ensure that these proposed configuration modifications do not adversely affect the flow behavior at the inlet and the overall performance of the GLCC©. This paper presents a numerical study utilizing specific GLCC© field application working under 3 different case studies representing the flow entering the GLCC, separating light oil, steam flooded wells in Minas, Indonesia. Commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software is utilized to analyze the hydrodynamics of flow with the proposed modifications of the inlet section for GLCC© field applications.


2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (225) ◽  
pp. 89-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Lewis ◽  
Sivaprasad Gogineni ◽  
Fernando Rodriguez-Morales ◽  
Ben Panzer ◽  
Theresa Stumpf ◽  
...  

AbstractWe have built and operated an ultra-wideband UHF pulsed-chirp radar for measuring firn stratigraphy from airborne platforms over the ice sheets of Greenland and West Antarctica. Our analysis found a wide range of capabilities, including imaging of post firn–ice transition horizons and sounding of shallow glaciers and ice shelves. Imaging of horizons to depths exceeding 600 m was possible in the colder interior regions of the ice sheet, where scattering from the ice surface and inclusions was minimal. The radar’s high sensitivity and large dynamic range point to loss tangent variations as the dominant mechanism for these englacial reflective horizons. The radar is capable of mapping interfaces with reflection coefficients as low as −80 dB near the firn–ice transition and as low as −64 dB at depths of 600 m. We found that firn horizon reflectivity strongly mirrored density variance, a result of the near-unity interfacial transmission coefficients. Zones with differing compaction mechanisms were also apparent in the data. We were able to sound many ice shelves and areas of shallow ice. We estimated ice attenuation rates for a few locations, and our attenuation estimates for the Ross Ice Shelf, West Antarctica, appear to agree well with earlier reported results.


2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas McDade

The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is an important national resource for policy makers and investigators across a wide range of disciplines, and it is critical that the study collects the best information possible on the health status of its participants within the constraints of the survey design, and without compromising the integrity of the sample. Potential directions for the collection and analysis of biomarker data in future waves of HRS are discussed, with a primary focus on blood-based biomarkers. Advantages and disadvantages of various methods for collecting blood in the home are considered, with particular attention given to the strengths and weaknesses of dried blood spot (DBS) sampling. DBS sampling has been widely applied in recent biosocial surveys due to the low cost and burden associated with sample collection, but these benefits need to be weighed against challenges associated with quantification in the laboratory. Attention is also given to additional biomarkers that may be of relevance to HRS, and that would expand the survey’s current focus on obesity and metabolic syndrome. Measures of inflammation, pathogen exposure, reproductive function, stress, and epigenetic modifications are suggested as potentially productive future directions for the study. In addition, the analysis concludes with the following recommendations for HRS: Continue to collect DBS samples, but consider alternatives; implement enhanced procedures for quality control; calibrate DBS results against plasma values, and invest in methods development.


2006 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 1828-1833
Author(s):  
Fabio A. Deorsola ◽  
P. Mossino ◽  
Ignazio Amato ◽  
Bruno DeBenedetti ◽  
A. Bonavita ◽  
...  

Nanostructured semiconductor metal oxides have played a central role in the gas sensing research field, because of their high sensitivity, selectivity and low response time. Among all the processes, developed for the synthesis of nanostructured metal oxides, gel combustion seems to be the most promising route due to low-cost precursors and simplicity of the process. It combines chemical gelation and combustion, involving the formation of a gel from an acqueous solution and an exothermic redox reaction, yielding to very porous and softly agglomerated nanopowders. In this work, nanostructured tin oxide, SnO2, and titanium oxide, TiO2, have been synthesized through gel combustion. Powders showed nanometric particle size and high specific surface area. The so-obtained TiO2 and SnO2 nanopowders have been used as sensitive element of resistive λ sensor and ethanol sensor respectively, realized depositing films of nanopowders dispersed in water onto alumina substrates provided with Pt contacts and heater. TiO2-based sensors showed at high temperature good response, fast response time, linearity in a wide range of O2 concentration and long-term stability. SnO2-based sensors have shown high sensitivity to low concentrations of ethanol at moderate temperature.


Author(s):  
Srinivas Swaroop Kolla ◽  
Ram S. Mohan ◽  
Ovadia Shoham

The Gas-Liquid Cylindrical Cyclone (GLCC©1) is a simple, compact and low-cost separator, which provides an economically attractive alternative to conventional gravity based separators over a wide range of applications. More than 6,500 GLCC©’s have been installed in the field to date around the world over the past 2 decades. The GLCC© inlet section design is a key parameter, which is crucial for its performance and proper operation. The flow behavior in the GLCC© body is highly dependent on the fluid velocities generated at the reduced area nozzle inlet. An earlier study (Kolla et al. [4]) recommended design modifications to the inlet section, based on safety and structural robustness. It is important to ensure that these proposed configuration modifications do not adversely affect the flow behavior at the inlet and the overall performance of the GLCC©. This study is carried out for a specific GLCC© field application, separating light oil, steam flooded wells in Minas, Indonesia. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software is used to analyze the hydrodynamics of flow with the proposed modifications of the inlet section for GLCC© field applications.


Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 3465
Author(s):  
Jianli Cui ◽  
Xueli Nan ◽  
Guirong Shao ◽  
Huixia Sun

Researchers are showing an increasing interest in high-performance flexible pressure sensors owing to their potential uses in wearable electronics, bionic skin, and human–machine interactions, etc. However, the vast majority of these flexible pressure sensors require extensive nano-architectural design, which both complicates their manufacturing and is time-consuming. Thus, a low-cost technology which can be applied on a large scale is highly desirable for the manufacture of flexible pressure-sensitive materials that have a high sensitivity over a wide range of pressures. This work is based on the use of a three-dimensional elastic porous carbon nanotubes (CNTs) sponge as the conductive layer to fabricate a novel flexible piezoresistive sensor. The synthesis of a CNTs sponge was achieved by chemical vapor deposition, the basic underlying principle governing the sensing behavior of the CNTs sponge-based pressure sensor and was illustrated by employing in situ scanning electron microscopy. The CNTs sponge-based sensor has a quick response time of ~105 ms, a high sensitivity extending across a broad pressure range (less than 10 kPa for 809 kPa−1) and possesses an outstanding permanence over 4,000 cycles. Furthermore, a 16-pixel wireless sensor system was designed and a series of applications have been demonstrated. Its potential applications in the visualizing pressure distribution and an example of human–machine communication were also demonstrated.


2019 ◽  
pp. 5-12

Factibilidad de integrar split-drain MAGFETs con alta sensibilidad en tecnología CMOS Feasibility to integrate high-sensitivity split-drain MAGFETs in CMOS technology Gerard Franz Santillán Quiñonez, Víctor H. Champac Vilela y Roberto S. Murphy Arteaga Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Campus UniversitárioTrindade, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil, C.P. 88040900, e-mail: [email protected] Departamento de Electrónica, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Sta. Ma. Tonantzintla, Puebla, México, C.P. 72840. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33017/RevECIPeru2011.0015/ RESUMEN La factibilidad de un Split-Drain MAGFET como sensor magnético ha sido explorada con diversas metodologías, pero sin aprovechar más de un efecto galvanomagnético simultáneamente. Unificando trabajos realizados teórica y experimentalmente, modelos analíticos continuos para la relación entre las fuerzas actuando en la dirección de deflexión y el ángulo de Hall, así como criterios de diseño para incrementar la sensibilidad de un Split-Drain MAGFET son presentados. El análisis propuesto muestra que es posible aprovechar los efectos de deflexión de las líneas de corriente y de magnetorresistencia para incrementar la sensibilidad en un Split-Drain MAGFET. Con un Split-Drain MAGFET con canal considerado como plato de Hall corto, sensibilidades de hasta 59 %/T han sido obtenidas experimentalmente midiendo densidades de flujo magnético desde 90 µT hasta 275 µT. Esto es posible debido a la contribución de los dos efectos galvanomagnéticos considerados. Adicionalmente, un macro modelo SPICE para un Split-Drain MAGFET es propuesto para facilitar su uso en circuitos de mayor complejidad. Con respecto a los resultados experimentales obtenidos, el macro modelo SPICE propuesto tiene un error <1.6 % generando el desbalance entre las corrientes de drenaje. Como un Split-Drain MAGFET es compatible con tecnología CMOS, dominante en circuitos integrados, los resultados obtenidos muestran que es factible usarlo como sensor magnético en sistemas integrados CMOS de alta complejidad, lo cual puede abrir un amplio rango de aplicaciones con bajo costo. Descriptores: MAGFET, split-drain MAGFET, efectos galvanomagnéticos, efecto Hall, magnetorresistencia, sensor magnético. ABSTRACT The feasibility of a Split-Drain MAGFET as magnetic sensor has been explored with several methodologies, but without simultaneously advantaging more than one galvanomagnetic effect. Unifying theorically and experimentally developed works, continuous analytical models for the relationship between forces acting in the deflection direction and for the Hall angle, as well as design criteria to increase the sensitivity of a Split-Drain MAGFET are presented. The proposed analysis shows that it is possible to take advantage of the current-lines deflection and magnetoresistance effects in order to increase the sensitivity of a Split-Drain MAGFET. With a Split-Drain MAGFET with a channel considered as a short Hall plate, sensitivities up to 59%/T have been experimentally obtained measuring magnetic flux densities from 90 µT to 275 µT. This is possible due to the contribution of the two considered galvanomagnetic effects. Additionally, a SPICE macro model for a SplitDrain MAGFET is proposed to facilitate its use in more complex circuits. With respect to the obtained experimental results, the proposed SPICE macro model has an error <1.6 % generating the drain current imbalance. Since a Split-Drain MAGFET is compatible with CMOS technology, dominating in integrated circuits, the obtained results show that it is feasible to use it as magnetic sensor in CMOS integrated systems of high complexity, which opens a wide range of low cost applications. Keywords: MAGFET, split-drain MAGFET, galvanomagnetic effects, Hall effect, magnetoresistance, magnetic sensor.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 6852
Author(s):  
Fatima Ezahra Annanouch ◽  
Virginie Martini ◽  
Tomas Fiorido ◽  
Bruno Lawson ◽  
Khalifa Aguir ◽  
...  

In this paper, we report the fabrication and characterization of a portable transdermal alcohol sensing device via a human finger, using tin dioxide (SnO2) chemoresistive gas sensors. Compared to conventional detectors, this non-invasive technique allowed us the continuous monitoring of alcohol with low cost and simple fabrication process. The sensing layers used in this work were fabricated by using the reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. Their structure and morphology were investigated by means of X-ray spectroscopy (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The results indicated that the annealing time has an important impact on the sensor sensitivity. Before performing the transdermal measurements, the sensors were exposed to a wide range of ethanol concentrations and the results displayed good responses with high sensitivity, stability, and a rapid detection time. Moreover, against high relative humidity (50% and 70%), the sensors remained resistant by showing a slight change in their gas sensing performances. A volunteer (an adult researcher from our volunteer group) drank 50 mL of tequila in order to realize the transdermal alcohol monitoring. Fifteen minutes later, the volunteer’s skin started to evacuate alcohol and the sensor resistance began to decline. Simultaneously, breath alcohol measurements were attained using a DRAGER 6820 certified breathalyzer. The results demonstrated a clear correlation between the alcohol concentration in the blood, breath, and via perspiration, which validated the embedded transdermal alcohol device reported in this work.


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