Copper (II)-catalyzed polydopamine mediated photothermal sensors for visual quantitative point-of-care testing.

Background: Temperature sensing is commonly used in point-of-care (POC) detection technologies, yet the portability and convenience of use are frequently compromised by the complexity of thermosensitive processes and signal transduction. Especially, multi-step target recognition reactions and temperature measurement in the reaction vessel present challenges in terms of stability and integration of detection devices. To further combine photothermal reaction and signal readout in one assay, these two processes enable to be integrated into miniaturized microfluidic chips, thereby facilitating photothermal sensing and achieving a simple visual temperature sensing as POC detection.

Targeted next-generation sequencing of deaf patients from Southwestern China.

Background: Targeted next-generation sequencing is an efficient tool to identify pathogenic mutations of hereditary deafness. The molecular pathology of deaf patients in southwestern China is not fully understood.

Methods: In this study, targeted next-generation sequencing of 127 deafness genes was performed on 84 deaf patients.