Quantifying the sol-gel process and detecting toxic gas in an array of anchored microfluidic droplets.

The detection of toxic gases is becoming an important element in tackling increased air pollution. This has led to the development of gas sensors based on porous solid materials, which are produced using sol-gel chemistry and functionalized to change their optical qualities when in contact with the gas. In this context it is interesting to explore how microfluidics can be used to miniaturize these sensors, to improve their sensitivity and dynamic range, or to multiplex many gas measurements on a single chip.

Assessment of terbium (III) as a luminescent probe for the detection of tuberculosis biomarkers.

A detection method for nicotinic acid, a specific metabolite marker of Mycobacterium tuberculosis present in cultures and patients' breath, is studied in complex solutions containing other metabolites and in biological media such as urine, saliva and breath condensate. The method is based on the analysis of the luminescence increase of Tb(3+) complexes in the presence of nicotinic acid due to the energy transfer from the excited ligand to the lanthanide ion. It is shown that other potential markers found in M.

Combinatorial discovery of fluorescent pharmacophores by multicomponent reactions in droplet arrays.

Fluorescence imaging in clinical diagnostics and biomedical research relies to a great extent on the use of small organic fluorescent probes. Because of the difficulty of combining fluorescent and molecular-recognition properties, the development of such probes has been severely restricted to a number of well-known fluorescent scaffolds. Here we demonstrate that autofluorescing druglike molecules are a valuable source of bioimaging probes.

2D label-free imaging of resonant grating biochips in ultraviolet.

2D images of label-free biochips exploiting resonant waveguide grating (RWG) are presented. They indicate sensitivities on the order of 1 pg/mm2 for proteins in air, and hence 10 pg/mm2 in water can be safely expected. A 320x256 pixels Aluminum-Gallium-Nitride-based sensor array is used, with an intrinsic narrow spectral window centered at 280 nm.