The enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) is the gold standard clinical diagnostic tool for the detection and quantification of protein biomarkers. However, conventional ELISA tests have drawbacks in their requirement of time, expensive equipment and expertise for operation. Hence, for the purpose of rapid, high throughput screening and point-of-care diagnosis, researchers are miniaturizing sandwich ELISA procedures on Lab-on-a-Chip and Lab-on-Compact Disc (LOCD) platforms. This paper presents a novel integrated device to detect and interpret the ELISA test results on a LOCD platform. The system applies absorption spectrophotometry to measure the absorbance (optical density) of the sample using a monochromatic light source and optical sensor. The device performs automated analysis of the results and presents absorbance values and diagnostic test results via a graphical display or via Bluetooth to a smartphone platform which also acts as controller of the device. The efficacy of the device was evaluated by performing dengue antibody IgG ELISA on 64 hospitalized patients suspected of dengue. The results demonstrate high accuracy of the device, with 95% sensitivity and 100% specificity in detection when compared with gold standard commercial ELISA microplate readers. This sensor platform represents a significant step towards establishing ELISA as a rapid, inexpensive and automatic testing method for the purpose of point-of-care-testing (POCT) in resource-limited settings.

BioNEMS/MEMS has emerged as an innovative technology for the miniaturisation of biomedical devices with high precision and rapid processing since its first R&D breakthrough in the 1980s. To date, several organic including food waste derived nanomaterials and inorganic nanomaterials (e.g., carbon nanotubes, graphene, silica, gold, and magnetic nanoparticles) have steered the development of high-throughput and sensitive bioNEMS/MEMS-based biosensors, actuator systems, drug delivery systems and implantable/wearable sensors with desirable biomedical properties. Turning food waste into valuable nanomaterials is potential groundbreaking research in this growing field of bioMEMS/NEMS. This review aspires to communicate recent progress in organic and inorganic nanomaterials based bioNEMS/MEMS for biomedical applications, comprehensively discussing nanomaterials criteria and their prospects as ideal tools for biomedical devices. We discuss clinical applications for diagnostic, monitoring, and therapeutic applications as well as the technological potential for cell manipulation (i.e., sorting, separation, and patterning technology). In addition, current in vitro and in vivo assessments of promising nanomaterials-based biomedical devices will be discussed in this review. Finally, this review also looked at the most recent state-of-the-art knowledge on Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as nanosensors, nanoantennas, nanoprocessors, and nanobattery.

In recent years, many improvements have been made in foodborne pathogen detection methods to reduce the impact of food contamination. Several rapid methods have been developed with biosensor devices to improve the way of performing pathogen detection. This paper presents an automated endpoint detection system for amplicons generated by loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) on a microfluidic compact disk platform. The developed detection system utilizes a monochromatic ultraviolet (UV) emitter for excitation of fluorescent labeled LAMP amplicons and a color sensor to detect the emitted florescence from target. Then it processes the sensor output and displays the detection results on liquid crystal display (LCD). The sensitivity test has been performed with detection limit up to 2.5 × 10⁻³ ng/µL with different DNA concentrations of Salmonella bacteria. This system allows a rapid and automatic endpoint detection which could lead to the development of a point-of-care diagnosis device for foodborne pathogens detection in a resource-limited environment.

In this article, we present a low-cost 2×2 metasurface-based rectenna array operating at the 2.45 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band for powering wearable medical sensors (WMS). The proposed antenna is a novel textile-based metasurface interlayer patch (meta-patch) antenna fabricated on a felt fabric substrate, replacing the conventional ground plane with a grounded metasurface consisting of a 3×3 unit cell array. A single excitation port is used for both the patch antenna and the metasurface to improve gain, efficiency, and bandwidth. The meta-patch antenna achieved a high gain of 7 dB, an efficiency of 77%, and an enhanced bandwidth of 120 MHz. The rectifier adopts a seven-stage Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier (CWVM) topology fabricated on a rigid substrate. To evaluate the performance of the meta-patch rectenna array and the effect of adding more elements, we tested the proposed meta-patch rectenna in single-element, 2×1 array, and 2×2 array configurations under continuous RF power. The single-element, 2×1 rectenna array, and 2×2 rectenna array achieved power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 52%, 53%, and 56%, with DC output powers of 414 μW, 429 μW, and 450 μW, respectively, at an input power of -1 dBm. The results demonstrate the potential of the proposed rectenna arrays for efficiently energizing low-power WMS.

Textile-based microfluidic biosensors represent an innovative fusion of various multidisciplinary fields, including bioelectronics, material sciences, and microfluidics. Their potential in biomedicine is significant as they leverage textiles to achieve high demands of biocompatibility with the human body and conform to the irregular surfaces of the body. In the field of microfluidics, fabric coated with hydrophobic materials serves as channels through which liquids are transferred in precise amounts to the sensing element, which in this case is a biosensor. This paper presents a condensed overview of the current developments in textile-based microfluidics and biosensors in biomedical applications over the past 20 years (2005–2024). A literature search was performed using the Scopus database. The fabrication techniques and materials used are discussed in this paper, as these will be key in various modifications and advancements in textile-based microfluidics. Furthermore, we also address the gaps in the application of textile-based microfluidic analytical devices in biomedicine and discuss the potential solutions. Advances in textile-based microfluidics are enabled by various printing and fabric manufacturing techniques, such as screen printing, embroidery, and weaving. Integration of these devices into everyday clothing holds promise for future vital sign monitoring, such as glucose, albumin, lactate, and ion levels, as well as early detection of hereditary diseases through gene detection. Although most testing currently takes place in a laboratory or controlled environment, this field is rapidly evolving and pushing the boundaries of biomedicine, improving the quality of human life.

We have found that carbon electrodes fabricated by the C-MEMS process to be chemically very inert. Hence, surface modification is necessary for their use as biosensors and electrochemical electrodes. Functionalization of carbon electrodes in an oxygen plasma or by acid treatment has been reported previously. However, there is often a need for selective functionalization only at specific locations on the electrodes, so that they can function as sensor element and also retain pristine surface chemistry in other areas. In this paper, we introduce a novel plasma direct-writing technique for selective functionalization of carbon electrodes with carboxylic groups at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. We demonstrate the plasma direct-writing on two test platforms. On platform one, we draw patterns of carboxylic functional groups on flat glassy carbon electrodes derived from photolithographically patterned photoresist. The second platform is carbon hybrid structure composed of glassy carbon walls and graphitic carbon nanowires suspended in between them by electromechanical spinning. Functionalization was performed only on nanowires by plasma direct-writing technique. The resulting surface chemistry and wettability of the electrodes are investigated by means of water contact angle measurement, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Carboxylic group functionalization is a first step towards immobilization of DNA or immunoglobulin for carbon based biosensors. Selective surface functionalization is important for better accuracy in biosensing by preventing unwanted immobilization and their interference. The plasma direct-writing technique not only enables controlled writing of functional groups but also enables control of the degree of functionalization in a simple one step procedure. Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Science Fund (SF-020-2014), Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme (TR002A-2014B), and University of Malaya Flagship Grant (FL001-14AET).