Microfluidics and 3D printing will allow a faster research and development in pharmaceutical and medical areas, supporting new solutions for active pharmaceutical production and clinical tests without the necessity of in vivo animal models. The present review aims to show the role of these two technologies in the resolution of current pharmaceutical issues (e.g., efficient continuous production of active pharmaceutical ingredients, high costs for medicine development and lack of preclinical systems capable to predict accurate human responses to new medicine drugs) and in the development of biomedical and tissue engineering. The present paper was divided into the following sections: microfluidics and active pharmaceutical ingredients synthesis, organs-on-a-chip and multiorgans microdevices, 3D printing/bioprinting, and hydrogels and bioinks. Finally, conclusions and future perspectives are exposed.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are incredibly versatile nanostructures that present a broad spectrum of applications, from nanomedicine to advanced optoelectronic materials. All AgNP properties strongly depend on nanoparticle size and shape. However, controlling these parameters in a cost-effective way is still a challenge. In this scenario, this study presents a modification of a classical two-step seed-mediated synthesis for photoinduced control of the morphology and optical properties of AgNP under low-intensity light-emitting diode (LED) irradiation in the presence of citrate as the sole additive. The LED irradiation wavelength determines the final morphology of these particles because of the shape dependence of the AgNP plasmon spectrum. Kinetics of photochemical transformation were monitored by electronic absorption, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction studies. Data fitting revealed that particle growth follows an unusual two-step photoinduced mechanism that includes (i) a photoinduced fusion of AgNP and (ii) a light-driven autocatalytic anisotropic growth along a favorable silver crystal axis following the Finke–Watzky kinetic model. The proposed mechanism highlights the importance of interweaving both crystallographic and surface chemistry arguments in order to discern the overall mechanism of nanoparticle growth. Therefore, the presented methodology allows obtaining very complex metallic nanostructures using a simple and low-cost methodology aiming the development of size-controllable nanoparticles for optical and (photo)­catalytic applications.

Highlights Vaccine development and medication used in medical protocols were described. The main fluid dynamic of transmission routes were elucidated. Successful applications of reverse engineering and 3D printing were reported. The state-of-art of Microfluidic-based chips in virus detection was detailed. The use of Artificial Intelligence on COVID-19 diagnostics was presented.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are incredibly versatile nanostructures that more recently have been exploited to create advanced optoelectronic materials due enhancement of local magnetic field after its irradiation. However, the use of AgNPs as nanoantennas to amplify photophysical properties of close photosensitizer (PS) molecules in photodynamic therapy is still underexplored. The reason for that is the difficulty to control crucial parameters such as silver-PS distance in aqueous solution. In this scenario, here we propose a nanohybrid system where AgNP/PS distance is controlled by a thin layer of different Pluronic copolymers. The controllable distance and aqueous stability of proposed nanohybrids allow a tunable enhancement of fluorescence emission and singlet oxygen generation of some selected PS molecules. A detailed mechanism investigation demonstrated that the observed metal-enhanced photophysics is due to magnetic field enhancement close to AgNP surface (AgNP/PS distancecontrolled effect) and the resonant coupling of AgNP hot electrons and HOMO-LUMO energies of the PS (AgNP/PS spectral overlap-controlled effect). These results show that the rational design in engineering new nanohybrid structures allowed photophysical improvement of PS molecules in aqueous solution in a tunable way and point out Pluronic-based AgNP/PS nanohybrids as a smart material for further developments aiming at theranostic applications in photodynamic therapy.

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