A bioelectrostatic responsive microlaser based on liquid crystal droplets was developed and explored for ultrasensitive detection of negatively charged biomolecules.

In this paper, a simple, miniature, and highly sensitive photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor is proposed. The target analyte and the plasmonic material are at the outer surface of the fiber making practical applications feasible. A 30-nm gold (Au) layer supports surface plasmons. A thin titanium dioxide (TiO 2) layer is used to assist adhesion of Au on the glass fiber. The fiber cross section is formed purely by circular-shaped holes simplifying the preform manufacturing process. A high-birefringence (hi-bi) fiber is obtained by means of an array of air holes at the center of the fiber. A finite element method (FEM) is employed to analyze the surface plasmon properties of the proposed PCF-SPR sensor. By optimizing the geometric parameters, a maximum wavelength sensitivity (WS) of 25 000 nm/RIU and an amplitude sensitivity (AS) of 1411 RIU −1 for a dielectric refractive index (RI) range of 1.33-1.38 are obtained. Moreover, an estimated maximum resolution of 4 × 10 −6 and a figure of merit (FOM) of 502 are obtained that ensures high detection accuracy of small refractive index (RI) changes. Owing to its sensitivity and simple architecture, the proposed sensor has potential application in a range of sensing application, including biosensing.

Recent advances in lab-on-a-chip technology establish solid foundations for wearable biosensors. These newly emerging wearable biosensors are capable of non-invasive, continuous monitoring by miniaturization of electronics and integration with microfluidics. The advent of flexible electronics, biochemical sensors, soft microfluidics, and pain-free microneedles have created new generations of wearable biosensors that explore brand-new avenues to interface with the human epidermis for monitoring physiological status. However, these devices are relatively underexplored for sports monitoring and analytics, which may be largely facilitated by the recent emergence of wearable biosensors characterized by real-time, non-invasive, and non-irritating sensing capacities. Here, we present a systematic review of wearable biosensing technologies with a focus on materials and fabrication strategies, sampling modalities, sensing modalities, as well as key analytes and wearable biosensing platforms for healthcare and sports monitoring with an emphasis on sweat and interstitial fluid biosensing. This review concludes with a summary of unresolved challenges and opportunities for future researchers interested in these technologies. With an in-depth understanding of the state-of-the-art wearable biosensing technologies, wearable biosensors for sports analytics would have a significant impact on the rapidly growing field—microfluidics for biosensing.