About this Research Topic

Background

Non communicable diseases such as heart and stroke disorders, cancer, chronic respiratory obstruction conditions, diabetes, metabolic disorders, neurological disorders, and neonatal disorders have emerged as a principal cause of illness and death worldwide. As such, there is a growing need for reliable, cost-effective, easy-to-use rapid devices for early diagnosis. The diagnosis can be a confirmatory and continuous assessment of a disease. Biosensors have emerged as portable devices that are capable of detecting biomarkers, thereby changing the biological signal into quantifiable signal. However, these devices suffer from poor selectivity which is commonly related to lack of surface architecture appropriate for the required biorecognition signal generation process. The emergence of nanotechnology has opened new avenues for development of novel nanomaterials with one or more dimensions in the scale of nanometers. These materials are characterized with superior surface-to-volume ratio and tailored 3D arrangements of binding sites, thus facilitating selective surface adsorption of analyte molecules during biosensing. This provides the basis of selective and sensitive detection of specific disease conditions. Thus, the performance of these 2D and 3D nanostructured materials must be explored from synthesis, through to electrode fabrication and characterization, and further towards technology development, in order to introduce alternative diagnostic devices with enhanced performance characteristics.

The dimensionality of 2D and 3D materials affords tuneable optical, electrochemical and adsorption capabilities due to the presence of weak van der Waals forces between their sheet and which are essential in the development of versatile point-of-care diagnostic devices. The properties of these new 2D materials can be further improved through formation of composite materials with other materials of different dimensionality, resulting to an enhanced performance of 2D-based diagnostic devices. The combination of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) nanomaterials provides access to unique hierarchical structures, high surface area, and layered configurations with multiple length scales and porosity, and the possibility to create functionalities for targeted recognition at their surface. Such hierarchical structures offer prospects to tune the electronic properties, performance, and mechanical flexibility and thereby affording ability to recognize and respond to external stimuli. Combining these unique features of the different types of nanostructures and using them as support for bimolecular assemblies can provide biosensing platforms with targeted recognition and transduction properties, and increased robustness, sensitivity, and selectivity for detection of human diseases. Hence, strategic synthetic routes to achieve the optimum material properties need to be evaluated alongside advanced electrode and biosensor device fabrication techniques. The performance of biosensors as point-of-care devices for detection of non-communicable diseases is of major importance for early detection and continuous disease monitoring, to deliver technologies that can meet the demands of citizen-centric public health service.

We welcome the submission of Original Research, Review, Mini Review, and Perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to:

• Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical evaluation of 2D materials and their composite materials (graphene, graphitic carbon nitrides, transition metal sulphides, transition metal oxides, Mxenes)

• Synthesis of 3D nanostructured materials as sensing platforms

• Immobilization of 2D/3D based nanocomposites into various substrates

• Incorporation of emerging biomarkers for improved disease monitoring

• Fabrication of 2D and/or 3D biosensors using screen printing, ink-jet printing and 3D printing

• Detection of glucose, neurotransmitters, cancer and other non-communicable disease

• Integration of biosensors into point-of-care devices for practical application

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• Mini Review
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: 2D materials, nanomaterials, sensor, biosensor, point-of-care, devices, diagnostic

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