Blood has been the most reliable body fluid commonly used for the diagnosis of diseases. Although there have been promising investigations for the development of novel lab-on-a-chip devices to utilize other body fluids such as urine and sweat samples in diagnosis, their stability remains a problem that limits the reliability and accuracy of readouts. Hence, accurate and quantitative separation and characterization of blood cells are still crucial. The first step in achieving high-resolution characteristics for specific cell subpopulations from the whole blood is the isolation of pure cell populations from a mixture of cell suspensions. Second, live cells need to be purified from dead cells; otherwise, dead cells might introduce biases in the measurements. In addition, the separation and characterization methods being used must preserve the genetic and phenotypic properties of the cells. Among the characterization and separation approaches, dielectrophoresis (DEP) is one of the oldest and most efficient label-free quantification methods, which directly purifies and characterizes cells using their intrinsic, physical properties. In this study, we present the dielectrophoretic separation and characterization of live and dead monocytes using 3D carbon-electrodes. Our approach successfully removed the dead monocytes while preserving the viability of the live monocytes. Therefore, when blood analyses and disease diagnosis are performed with enriched, live monocyte populations, this approach will reduce the dead-cell contamination risk and achieve more reliable and accurate test results.

Carbon materials constitute a growing family of high‐performance materials immersed in ongoing scientific technological revolutions. Their biochemical properties are interesting for a wide set of healthcare applications and their biomechanical performance, which can be modulated to mimic most human tissues, make them remarkable candidates for tissue repair and regeneration, especially for articular problems and osteochondral defects involving diverse tissues with very different morphologies and properties. However, more systematic approaches to the engineering design of carbon‐based cell niches and scaffolds are needed and relevant challenges should still be overcome through extensive and collaborative research. In consequence, this study presents a comprehensive description of carbon materials and an explanation of their benefits for regenerative medicine, focusing on their rising impact in the area of osteochondral and articular repair and regeneration. Once the state‐of‐the‐art is illustrated, innovative design and fabrication strategies for artificially recreating the cellular microenvironment within complex articular structures are discussed. Together with these modern design and fabrication approaches, current challenges, and research trends for reaching patients and creating social and economic impacts are examined. In a closing perspective, the engineering of living carbon materials is also presented for the first time and the related fundamental breakthroughs ahead are clarified.

Low-cost enzyme-free glucose sensors with partial flexibility adaptable for wearable Internet of Things devices that can be envisioned as personalized point-of-care devices were produced by electroplating copper on locally carbonized flexible meta-polyaramid (Nomex) sheets using laser radiation. Freestanding films were annealed in nitrogen and nitrogen/air working environments, leading to the formation of Cu microspheroids and CuO urchins dispersed on the substrate film. The aggregation mechanism, crystallographic properties, surface chemistry, and electrochemical properties of the films were studied using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. Cu microspheroids and CuO urchins attained activity for glucose detection and showed improvement of amperometric sensitivity to 0.25 and 0.32 mA cm^–2 mM^–1, respectively. The CuO urchin film retained its chemical composition after amperometric testing, and, by rinsing, allowed multiple repetitions with reproducible results. This study opens the possibility for the fabrication of durable composite biosensors with tailored shape, capable of implementation in flexible carriers, and microfluidic systems.