Enhancing Biocidal Capability in Cuprite Coatings.

The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic has reinvigorated interest in the creation and widespread deployment of durable, cost-effective, and environmentally benign antipathogenic coatings for high-touch public surfaces. While the contact-kill capability and mechanism of metallic copper and its alloys are well established, the biocidal activity of the refractory oxide forms remains poorly understood. In this study, commercial cuprous oxide (CuO, cuprite) powder was rapidly nanostructured using high-energy cryomechanical processing.

Real-time particle-by-particle detection of erythrocyte-camouflaged microsensor with extended circulation time in the bloodstream.

Personalized medicine offers great potential benefits for disease management but requires continuous monitoring of drugs and drug targets. For instance, the therapeutic window for lithium therapy of bipolar disorder is very narrow, and more frequent monitoring of sodium levels could avoid toxicity. In this work, we developed and validated a platform for long-term, continuous monitoring of systemic analyte concentrations in vivo.

Recent Developments in Nanosensors for Imaging Applications in Biological Systems.

Sensors are key tools for monitoring the dynamic changes of biomolecules and biofunctions that encode valuable information that helps us understand underlying biological processes of fundamental importance. Because of their distinctive size-dependent physicochemical properties, materials with nanometer scales have recently emerged as promising candidates for biological sensing applications by offering unique insights into real-time changes of key physiological parameters. This review focuses on recent advances in imaging-based nanosensor developments and applications categorized by their signal transduction mechanisms, namely, fluorescence, plasmonics, MRI, and photoacoustics.