Glucose sensors are potentially useful tools for monitoring the glucose concentration in cell culture medium. Here, we present a new, low-cost, and reproducible sensor based on a cellulose-based material, 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) oxidized-cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs). This novel biocompatible and inert nanomaterial is employed as a polymeric matrix to immobilize and stabilize glucose oxidase in the fabrication of a reproducible, operationally stable, highly selective, cost-effective, screen-printed glucose sensor. The sensors have a linear range of 0.1–2 mM (R² = 0.999) and a sensitivity of 5.7 ± 0.3 µA cm⁻²∙mM⁻¹. The limit of detection is 0.004 mM, and the limit of quantification is 0.015 mM. The sensor maintains 92.3 % of the initial current response after 30 consecutive measurements in a 1 mM standard glucose solution, and has a shelf life of 1 month while maintaining high selectivity. We demonstrate the practical application of the sensor by monitoring the glucose consumption of a fibroblast cell culture over the course of several days.

With the steady increase in allergy prevalence worldwide, there is a strong need for novel diagnostic tools for precise, fast, and less invasive testing methods. Herein, a miniatured fluorescence-based biosensing system is developed for the rapid and quantitative detection of allergen-specific immunoglobulin-E. An antibody-based fluorescence assay in a microfluidic-patterned slide, combined with a custom-made portable fluorescence reader for image acquisition and user-friendly software for the data analysis, enables obtaining results for multiple allergens in just ~1 h with only 80 μL of blood serum. The multiplexed detection of common birch, timothy grass, cat epithelia, house dust mite, and dog epithelia shows quantitative IgE-mediated allergic responses to specific allergens in control serum samples with known total IgE concentration. The responses are verified with different control tests and measurements with a commercial fluorescence reader. These results open the door to point-of-care allergy screening for early diagnosis and broader access and for large-scale research in allergies.

This work presents a demonstrator for online monitoring of pesticides or water contaminants which is robust, fast, specific and low cost. The system is designed for continuous monitoring in water matrices (source- and surface water, treated waste water), and is thus completed with an automated fluidics. The main characteristics of the system are: (a) Detection based on competitive immunoassay; (b) Label-free sensing with possibility of following the binding kinetics of the contaminants; (c) Modular sensing surfaces characteristics; (d) In-assay calibration/normalization; (e) Re-generable biochip >80 times; (f) Detection limit of the analyte, the pesticide atrazine, 0.05 µg/L; (g) Computational Bioanalytics; (h) Compensation of the interfering effects.

A miniaturized multi-array system is being developed for immune-signature testing. The presented system includes microfluidic chips functionalized with allergens for IgE detection and a custom-made portable reader for fast (~1 s), quantitative, and sensitive (500 dye molecules/μm²) detection, with a high spatial resolution (~50–100 μm). The developed solution enables the rapid sensing of allergic reactions at the point of care with a low-cost portable device.