Advances in Microfluidic and Sensing Technologies of Biofluids

Introduction

Detection of biological fluids is an important means to assess human health and diagnose diseases. Currently, research on blood is relatively mature and widely applied in the medical field. With the development and advancement of microfluidic technology and novel detection methods, attention has turned to human physiological fluids such as sweat, tears, and urine in recent years. These physiological fluids contain abundant biomarkers closely related to human health. Unlike blood, the extraction of these physiological fluids often does not harm human tissues, making continuous monitoring feasible. Especially with the development of flexible electronics and novel sensing materials, this field is showing unprecedented vitality. Accordingly, this special issue aims to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles focusing on, (1) Novel microfluidic methods for collecting trace amounts of human physiological fluids or continuously monitoring already collected fluids in real-time; (2) Inventing new detection methods to detect biomarkers in human physiological fluids more stably, accurately, or conveniently; (3) Combining flexible electronics technology with electrochemical sensing methods to develop wearable flexible sensors for detecting human physiological fluids; and (4) discovering new biomarkers and establishing correlations with human health conditions or disease diagnosis.

Keywords

Microfluidic, biofluids, analytical methods, biomarkers, wearable sensors, flexible electronics

Sub-topics

ØMicrofluidic technologies for collecting biofluids

ØAnalytical methods for measuring biomarkers in biofluids

ØWearable sensors for real-time analysis of biofluids

ØFlexible electronics technology for electrochemical sensing

ØNew biomarkers and their relationships with human health or diseases