Yusun Zhou is pursuing on his doctorate in Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. His research work is supervised by Professor Surong Mei and supported by several project funds. His research interest is to introduce molecular imprinting and molecular recognition in the field of environmental and biological science.

In recent years, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have received worldwide concern due to their environmental persistence and potential biological effect. A recent survey for surface water in Northern China suggested that PFOA accounted for 52−70% of the total detected PFCs, much higher than that of the other PFCs. In this study, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were prepared by a modified sol-gel process for selective recognition of PFOA (Fig. 1). 1H,1H,2H,2H-Perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane (PFOTES) and 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) was used as the binary functional monomers. The ratio of functional monomer and template molecule plays an important role on the selective recognition ability of MIPs. As shown in Fig. 2, increase of APTES or PFOTES could raise the binding amount of MIPs within a certain range, but the binding amount of NIPs for PFOA also increased, which reduced the imprinting factor (IF) of MIPs. Therefore, the optimal MIPs with maximum IF (1.92) and appropriate binding amount (76.9 mg g-1) for PFOA were obtained when the amounts of PFOA, APTES, PFOTES and TEOS were 0.25, 0.3, 0.3, 5 mmol ( 1: 1.25: 1.25: 20) respectively. Furthermore, systemic studies in regard to MIPs are in progress for selectivity evaluation and real application in environmental, biological and foodstuff samples.

Using guanine (G)-rich DNA aptamer-conjugated 6-FAM capable of rapidly capturing prostate specific antigen (PSA) in human serum, rapid and simple biosensor with guanine chemiluminescence detection was developed for early diagnosis of prostate cancer. Free G-rich DNA aptamer-conjugated 6-FAM emit bright light in guanine chemiluminescence reaction. However, G-rich DNA aptamer-conjugated 6-FAM bound with PSA cannot emit light because 6-FAM excited by guanine chemiluminescence reaction transfer energy to PSA based on the principle of chemiluminescent resonance energy transfer. Chemiluminescent biosensor using the different properties of G-rich DNA aptamer-conjugated 6-FAM in the absence and presence of PSA was able to quantify trace levels of PSA in human serum within 30 minutes without time-consuming and complicated procedures (e.g., multiple incubation and washing) required for conventional immunoassays operated with expensive and intractable antibodies. The limit of detection of chemiluminescent biosensor having a wide linear dynamic range (1.9 – 125 ng/ml) was 1.0 ng/ml. The excellent correlation (R = 0.985) between chemiluminescent biosensor and conventional enzyme immunoassay indicates that the accurate, precise, and rapid chemiluminescent biosensor can be applied as a new method for early diagnosis of cancer.

Anton Alexandru CIUCU is a professor, PhD in University of Bucharest in Romania. He is focused with research interest on biosensor development and practical applications in bioanalysis. Fundamental studies in bio-electrocatalysis, direct electron transfer enzyme catalyzed redox reactions; Engineering of biosensors based on electrochemical detection of direct electron transfer, enzyme sensor for direct detection of substrates of enzymes expressing bio-electrocatlytic properties. DNA sensors, electrochemical approaches for DNA direct assay. Practically useful solutions are sought for the application of biosensor in process control, in biomedical applications, e.g. miniaturization for home monitoring as well as for in and ex vivo monitoring and development of portable and hopefully even implantable sensor-chips. He had an industrial experience of 3 years as a Biochemist at the Pharmaceutical Factory in Bucharest

A simple and reliable method for preparing a selective dopamine (DA) sensor based on a molecularly imprinted polymer of ethacridine (ET) was proposed. The molecular imprinted electrode was prepared through electrodepositing ET-DA film on the glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and then removing DA from the film via chemical induced elution. The molecular imprinted sensor was tested by cyclic voltammetry (CV) as well as by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) to verify the changes in oxidative currents of DA. The prepared sensor exhibited highly sensitive response to the oxidation of DA. In optimized DPV conditions the oxidation peak current was well-proportional to the concentration of DA in the range from 2.0 x 10-8 M to 10.7 x 10-8 M. The limit of detection (3σ) of dopamine was found to be as low as 4.4 nM, by the proposed sensor that could be considered a sensitive marker of dopamine depletion in Parkinson’s disease. Good reproducibility with relative standard deviation of 1.4% and long term stability within two weeks were also observed. Under the optimized conditions the dopamine-imprinted polyethacridine (PET-DA) films were found to selectively detect DA against the physiologically common interferents ascorbic acid, uric acid and paracetamol. The modified sensor was validated for the analysis of DA in deproteinized human serum samples using differential pulse voltammetric technique.

Fluorescent sensors has received considerable interest in recent years because of its ability to provide visualized monitoring of very low concentrations together with the advantages of spatial and temporal resolution. Over the past two decades, several fluorescent sensors for iron (III) have been reported. However, the currently known fluorescent sensors that are capable of cellular iron imaging are largely limited to “turn-off” type, providing useful information but suffering from poor sensitivity, or interference from other metal ions. We have been developing rhodamine based turn-on fluorescent sensors. Here we report a new iron (III) sensor , Rh-PK, which is stable in low pH's and is capable of detecting basal level Fe+3 in the human live cells at subcellular resolution. We thank the National Science Foundation for funding this project.

Lars Bengtsson, born in 1963, is a senior lecturer in embedded systems at University of Gothenburg (Sweden) since 2007 and was prior to that a lecturer at Chalmers University of Technology. LB has a PhD in physics and his main research area is embedded measurement systems and instrumentation. He is the author of several textbooks, scientific articles and conference contributions on embedded systems and electrical measurement techniques. LB has also served as a visiting scientist at NIST in Washington DC.

Reliable peak detectors are of great importance in medicine where they are used to monitor blood pressure, detecting hypertension and heart rate variability, respiration maxima in apnea patients, QRS peaks in ECG, allergy levels etc. This work presents some aspects on the implementation of peak detectors in general and microcontroller implementations in particular. This work presents the problems concerned with implementing peak detectors in microcontrollers, how they can be solved and what performance numbers you can expect from a microcontroller-based peak detector. Prototype hardware is presented as well as preliminary performance diagrams. The advantages and disadvantages of microcontroller-based peak detectors are discussed.

Dilek CAM has completed her M.Sc.degree from Yeditepe University. The thesis is about cellular uptake (cancer and healthy cells) and cytotoxicity of modified silver nanoparticles.She is a PhD student and research assistant in the department of Biological Sciences at Middle East Technical University (METU) (2010-…..). She has published papers related with rapid microbial identification based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and cellular uptake, localization and cytotoxicity of gold and silver nanoparticles (modified/unmodified). Her research interests are; Nanobiotechnology, Nanotoxicity, nanobiosensors, cancer targeting and detection.

Lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) tests have been a popular platform for rapid immunoassays since their introduction in the mid-1980s. It is also known as immunochromatographic strip tests described in the 1960s and thefirst commercial application as a pregnancy test was in 1988. LFIA tests are simple diagnostic kits commonlybased on a nitrocellulose membrane matrix.They are used to detect the presence/absence of a target analyte in a sample.Today this technique has found and growing applications in proteomics, therapeutic monitoring, infectious and chronic disease, non-human applications (veterinary), agriculture, biowarfare, environmental health and safety, food industry.In this study, a platform for food pathogen detection by Lateral Flow technology, based on gold nanoparticles (GNP-35nm) was developed. The platform was tested on both positive controls and real field collected samples. Parameters including, flow rate, antibody concentration at test and control lines and conjugate concentration were evaluated and optimized. The specificity of the strips was tested on both laboratory strains and field isolates of various Salmonella species. The strips exhibited more than 90% specificity on the field isolates. Currently, the strips are planned to be integrated in nationwide screening programs.

Maryam Nikkhah received her Ph.D. degree in biophysics in 2006 from University of Tehran. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the department of Nanobiotechnology at Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. Her research interests focus on developing of nanosystems for sensing and diagnostic applications and modulating self-assembly of amyloidogenic proteins in neurodegenerative diseases.

In recent years, besides the classic drugs, addiction to a series of new drug classes known as club drugs has been widely increased. Fast and low-cost bioassay for detection of these amphetamine based drugs can be an effective strategy for decreasing its abuse. In that regard, a novel bioassay strategy based on unmodified gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and a DNA aptamer has been developed to detect methamphetamine. In this design, in the absence of the target molecule, the Apt+AuNPs solution resists against salt-induced aggregation and the color of the solution remains red. Binding of the target molecule to the aptamer leads to the aptamer conformational changes. As a result, the aptamer could not stabilize AuNPs against salt-induced aggregation and the color changes from red to purple. This approach can be served as a very simple and promising colorimetric probe for selective detection of methamphetamine down to the nanomolar range within minutes.

A light radiation causes dysfunction and death of retinal ganglion cells (RGC-5) and leads to retinal degeneration. In the present study, we investigated light-induced dysfunction, and addressed the cell viability using an unprecedented, simple and real-time in vitro analytical tool. Hence an unprecedented light setup was established using a bioimpedance system to generate artificial light that damage retinal RGC-5, and the corresponding impedance was recorded. Along with the effects of agmatine and resveratrol on light-induced damage and this underlying photo-oxidative and protective mechanisms were monitored by bio-impedance system. The real-time measurement was used to assess cell behavior on light induced response to therapeutic agents. After exposure to light from 4 to 24 hrs, 5-10% to 20-25% of the RGC-5 cells underwent death. During light exposure the RGC-5 cells elevate free radicals and Ca2+, followed by other noxious factors such as the nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor-⍺ (TNF-⍺) in the culture media, which can be facilitated to arrest cell cycle and cell demise. Drugs treated cells show some decrease in free radicals, Ca2+, NO, and TNF-⍺ compared to the untreated cells. The results revealed that agmatine and resveratrol can control the elevation of free radical, calcium gating, nitric oxide level, and increased TNF-α, which could diminish RGC-5 cell photo-damage. In summary, resveratrol helps more to rescue damaged cells compared to agmatine and this system provides an enough potential to study photo-protective drugs. Also the proposed system identifies the photo-toxic effects in RGC-5 and provides high throughput drug screening for photo-oxidative damage during early stages of drug discovery. This study is convenient and potential enough for the direct measurements of the photo-protective effect in vitro and would be of broad interest in the field of radiation-induced melanoma and eye cell-damaging studies.