In recent decades, environmental pollution has emerged as a core issue, around the globe, rendering it of fundamental concern to eco-toxicologists, environmental biologists, eco-chemists, pathologists, and researchers from other fields. The dissolution of polluting agents is a leading cause of environmental pollution of all key spheres including the hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, among others. The widespread occurrence of various pollutants including toxic heavy metals and other emerging hazardous contaminants is a serious concern. With increasing scientific knowledge, socioeconomic awareness, human health problems, and ecological apprehensions, people are more concerned about adverse health outcomes. Against this background, several removal methods have been proposed and implemented with the aim of addressing environmental pollution and sustainable and eco-friendly development. Among them, the biosorption of pollutants using naturally inspired sources, e.g., marine algae, has considerable advantages. In the past few years, marine algae have been extensively studied due to their natural origin, overall cost-effective ratio, and effectiveness against a broader pollutant range; thus, they are considered a potential alternative to the conventional methods used for environmental decontamination. Herein, an effort has been made to highlight the importance of marine algae as naturally inspired biosorbents and their role in biosorption. Biosorption mechanisms and factors affecting biosorption activities are also discussed in this review. The utilization of marine algae as a biosorbent for the removal of numerous potentially toxic elements has also been reviewed.

The increasing environmental pollution with particular reference to emerging contaminants, toxic heavy elements, and other hazardous agents is a serious concern worldwide. Considering this global issue, there is an urgent need to design and develop strategic measuring techniques with higher efficacy and precision to detect a broader spectrum of numerous contaminants. The development of precise instruments can further help in real-time and in-process monitoring of the generation and release of environmental pollutants from different industrial sectors. Moreover, real-time monitoring can also reduce the excessive consumption of several harsh chemicals and reagents with an added advantage of on-site determination of contaminant composition prior to discharge into the environment. With key scientific advances, electrochemical biosensors have gained considerable attention to solve this problem. Electrochemical biosensors can be an excellent fit as an analytical tool for monitoring programs to implement legislation. Herein, we reviewed the current trends in the use of electrochemical biosensors as novel tools to detect various contaminant types including toxic heavy elements. A particular emphasis was given to screen-printed electrodes, nanowire sensors, and paper-based biosensors and their role in the pollution detection processes. Towards the end, the work is wrapped up with concluding remarks and future perspectives. In summary, electrochemical biosensors and related areas such as bioelectronics, and (bio)-nanotechnology seem to be growing areas that will have a marked influence on the development of new bio-sensing strategies in future studies.

In recent years, ever-increasing scientific knowledge and modern high-tech advancements in micro- and nano-scales fabrication technologies have impacted significantly on various scientific fields. A micro-level approach so-called “microfluidic technology” has rapidly evolved as a powerful tool for numerous applications with special reference to bioengineering and biomedical engineering research. Therefore, a transformative effect has been felt, for instance, in biological sample handling, analyte sensing cell-based assay, tissue engineering, molecular diagnostics, and drug screening, etc. Besides such huge multi-functional potentialities, microfluidic technology also offers the opportunity to mimic different organs to address the complexity of animal-based testing models effectively. The combination of fluid physics along with three-dimensional (3-D) cell compartmentalization has sustained popularity as organ-on-a-chip. In this context, simple humanoid model systems which are important for a wide range of research fields rely on the development of a microfluidic system. The basic idea is to provide an artificial testing subject that resembles the human body in every aspect. For instance, drug testing in the pharma industry is crucial to assure proper function. Development of microfluidic-based technology bridges the gap between in vitro and in vivo models offering new approaches to research in medicine, biology, and pharmacology, among others. This is also because microfluidic-based 3-D niche has enormous potential to accommodate cells/tissues to create a physiologically relevant environment, thus, bridge/fill in the gap between extensively studied animal models and human-based clinical trials. This review highlights principles, fabrication techniques, and recent progress of organs-on-chip research. Herein, we also point out some opportunities for microfluidic technology in the future research which is still infancy to accurately design, address and mimic the in vivo niche.