Point‐of‐care (POC) diagnostic devices have been predicted to provide a boon in health care especially in the diagnosis and detection of diseases. POC devices have been found to have many advantages like a rapid and precise response, portability, low cost, and non‐requirement of specialized equipment. The major objective of a POC diagnostic research is to develop a chip‐based, self‐containing miniaturized device that can be used to examine different analytes in complex samples. Further, the integration of microfluidics (MF) with advanced biosensor technologies is likely to result in improved POC diagnostics. This paper presents the overview of the different materials (glass, silicon, polymer, paper) and techniques for the fabrication of MF based POC devices along with their wide range of biosensor applications. Besides this, the authors have presented in brief the challenges that MF is currently facing along with possible solutions that may result in the availability of the accessible, reliable, and cost‐efficient technology. The development of these devices requires the combination of developed MF components into POC devices that are user‐friendly, sensitive, stable, accurate, low cost, and minimally invasive. These MF based POC devices have tremendous potential in providing improved healthcare including easy monitoring, early detection of disease, and increased personalization.

This review deals with four different types of carbon allotrope based nanosystems and summarizes the results of recent studies that are likely to have applications in cancer theranostics. We discuss the applications of these nanosystems for cancer imaging, drug delivery, hyperthermia, and PDT/TA/PA.

Molecular diagnostics has been the front runner in the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the quantitative variant (qRT-PCR) have been the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis. However, faster antigen tests and other point-of-care (POC) devices have also played a significant role in containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 by facilitating mass screening and delivering results in less time. Thus, despite the higher sensitivity and specificity of the RT-PCR assays, the impact of POC tests cannot be ignored. As a consequence, there has been an increased interest in the development of miniaturized, high-throughput, and automated PCR systems, many of which can be used at point-of-care. This review summarizes the recent advances in the development of miniaturized PCR systems with an emphasis on COVID-19 detection. The distinct features of digital PCR and electrochemical PCR are detailed along with the challenges. The potential of CRISPR/Cas technology for POC diagnostics is also highlighted. Commercial RT–PCR POC systems approved by various agencies for COVID-19 detection are discussed.

We report results of the studies relating to the development of an efficient biosensor for non-invasive detection of CYFRA-21-1 cancer biomarker. We used a low dielectric constant material (nanostructured yttrium oxide, nY₂O₃) for the fabrication of the biosensing platform. The nY₂O₃ was synthesized via solvothermal process and functionalized using 3-aminopropyl triethoxy silane (APTES). Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of the functionalized nanomaterial (APTES/nY₂O₃) onto an indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass electrode was conducted at a DC potential of 50 V for 60 s. The EDC-NHS chemistry was used for covalent immobilization of −COOH bearing monoclonal anti-CYFRA-21-1 onto −NH₂ groups of APTES/nY₂O₃/ITO electrode. To avoid the non-specific interaction on the anti-CYFRA-21-1/APTES/nY₂O₃/ITO immunoelectrode, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was used. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were utilized for structural and morphological studies, whereas Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used for the bonding analysis. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques were used for electrochemical characterization and response studies of fabricated electrodes. The fabricated immunosensor (BSA/anti-CYFRA-21-1/APTES/nY₂O₃/ITO) exhibited linearity in the range of 0.01–50 ng·mL⁻¹, sensitivity of 226.0 Ω·mL·ng⁻¹, and lower detection limit of 0.01·ng·mL⁻¹. A reasonable correlation was observed between the results obtained using this biosensor and concentration of CYFRA-21-1 measured through ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) technique in salivary samples of oral cancer patients.