Accurate detection of gene subtypes with high sequence similarity is critical for pathogen diagnosis. Current CRISPR-based PCR diagnostics methods may provide improved specificity but rely on pre-amplification in a separate reaction, due to Cas protein thermal instability, increasing cross contamination. Here, we developed CRISPR-based terminal-specific amplification (CASTSA), a one-pot platform which makes use of the CRISPR-Cas12a specific recognition and cleavage, generating a single strand digested product with specific 5' termini, to serve as the template for qPCR amplification. Our assay simplifies sample preparation by eliminating the need pre-amplification, whilst simultaneously fully exploiting the high specificity of the CRISPR system and high sensitivity of PCR. CASTSA was validated in vitro and with clinical samples collected from individuals with Human Papillomavirus (HPV), demonstrating high specificity for HPV 16, whilst discriminating HPV 18, 33, 45, and 52 sub-types, using a laser-induced graphene (LIG)-based electrochemical sensor platform. The technique achieved a limit of detection of 18 copies/reaction and offers a robust and reproducible, one-pot solution for pathogen subtyping, providing excellent specificity, so advancing nucleic acid detection with an assay that is easier to implement when compared with standard clinical diagnostic workflows.

In this study, alumina/CQD (carbon quantum dot) nanostructures are synthesized using varying concentrations of CQD solution to systematically investigate their structural, morphological, and optical characteristics. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis shows a gradual transition from a crystalline to an amorphous structure with increasing CQD content used through the synthesis process. For the samples with lower values of CQD content (AQD-1 and AQD-7), the calculated crystallite sizes by the Scherrer equation are 2.93 and 2.77 nm. In comparison, they cannot be calculated for the samples synthesized using higher values of CQDs (AQD-9 and AQD-13). The results indicate that the volume of the CQD solution notably influenced the nanostructure morphology and the distribution of CQDs in the produced nanostructures. Also, a notable dependence of the samples' optical properties on CQD concentration is observed. The indirect band gap energy of the nanostructures, in particular, demonstrates a systematic increase by increasing the CQD content, suggesting the tunability of the nanostructure's optical properties by adjusting the carbon concentration used in the synthesis process. The nanocomposites' specific surface area (SSA) decreased with increasing CQD concentration from 247.2 to 97.7 m2/g, suggesting partial pore blockage or aggregation induced by CQD incorporation. The synthesized nanocomposites exhibited high efficiency in the water treatment even in water containing high concentrations of copper ions (184 ppm), underscoring their potential as effective adsorbents for heavy metal remediation. These findings suggest promising prospects for developing multifunctional nanomaterials suitable for optical and environmental applications.

Surface plasmon polariton probes have important applications in super-resolution imaging and sensing. However, conventional probes often rely on complex radially polarized light excitation and struggle to achieve high-intensity electric field enhancement localized at the probe tip, which limits their practical performance. This paper proposes a double-slit plasmonic platform-based fiber probe that enables efficient nanofocusing under linearly polarized light by integrating the Fabry-Pérot interference enhancement mechanism of the platform-based structure with the polarization control function of the asymmetric half-ring slit. We introduce an innovative sleeve ring etching technique that increases the probe tip curvature by more than an order of magnitude while also addressing the issue of uncontrollable morphology in conventional probe fabrication. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed probe exhibits an electric field strength at the probe tip that is six times higher than that of an asymmetric double-slit probe at a wavelength of 633 nm. Furthermore, it maintains stable focusing across a broadband range from 580 nm to 800 nm, with particularly significant enhancement in the short-wavelength region. Additionally, this probe achieves a resolution of 28.6 nm in optical imaging experiments, enabling simultaneous characterization of both morphological and optical properties of deep subwavelength-sized samples under ambient conditions.

Wide-range and high-sensitivity hydrogen sensors are critically important for hydrogen safety in aerospace and advanced transportation sectors. This work demonstrates a thermal-conductivity surface acoustic wave (SAW) based sensor to achieve high sensitivity hydrogen sensing. By integrating thermal balance and acoustic wave equations, a precise mechanistic model elucidating the structure-activity relationships among gas flow rate, operating temperature, and MEMS architecture in determining sensing sensitivity is constructed. Guided by this model, the SAW hydrogen sensor with on-chip microheater integration was developed. Furthermore, a highly integrated SAW hydrogen sensing system with ultra-low baseline noise (<30 µV) was constructed for performance evaluation. Leveraging the exceptional thermal sensitivity of the SAW device and system stability, the optimized sensor achieves wide detection range (up to 100% vol), low detection limit (~6 ppm), rapid response and recovery time (T90/T10: ~15 s), excellent repeatability (error<2.4%) at a relatively low operating temperature (120 °C). The prepared SAW sensor provides an effective solution for hydrogen leakage monitoring across unprecedented concentrations (ppm-100% vol), establishing a new paradigm for hydrogen safety applications.

The emergence of Organ-on-a-Chip (OoC) has significantly advanced biomedical research mainly on aspects of disease modeling and drug research. The need for real-time and continuous monitoring of the OoCs has been driving the development of integrated sensors on-chip. To meet these needs across different scales, from microscopic to macroscopic, primary sensing strategies for in situ sensor integration typically include electrical, optical, and mechanical approaches. This review focuses on the detection methodologies driven by these requirements and analyzes the core sensing elements involved. It further explores current innovative pathways for achieving in situ sensing integration and discusses the future prospects brought about by the development of models in OoC and sensing technologies.

This study presents the development of a novel omnidirectional soft bending sensor tailored for humanoid dexterous hands to facilitate posture perception in delicate manipulation tasks. Drawing inspiration from the human hand's intricate design and proprioceptive capabilities, this study aims to enhance the dexterity of robotic hands, particularly in multi-degree-of-freedom (DoF) motion and posture perception. To this end, we designed a humanoid dexterous hand featuring 18 active DoFs, with five rigid-flexible structured fingers for improved joint mobility. Each finger is equipped with our innovative omnidirectional bending sensor, utilizing segmented polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) optical fibers, a trichromatic LED, and a chromatic detector to detect the pitch and yaw angles of the metacarpophalangeal joints. The sensor demonstrated excellent measurement performance, stability, and repeatability in challenging tasks such as using scissors, operating a computer mouse, and playing the piano. This technology addresses the challenges associated with multi-DoF motion and omnidirectional posture perception in robotic hands, thereby enhancing their capabilities in delicate manipulation tasks and paving the way for further advancements in humanoid dexterous hand development.

Surface acoustic wave radio frequency identification (SAW RFID) has gained widespread adoption in remote sensing and identification. However, conventional SAW RFID tags suffer from significant energy loss due to the inherently low reflectance of standard reflectors, fundamentally limiting their wireless interrogation range. To address this limitation, this paper proposes a novel SAW RFID architecture employing reflective multistrip couplers (RMSCs), which exploit the velocity difference between symmetric and antisymmetric wave modes to achieve coherent reflection, thereby circumventing conventional electrical or mechanical reflection mechanisms. Numerical simulations were conducted to analyze performance deterioration induced by parasitic resistances and capacitance and to identify the optimal strip number for peak reflectance. The fabricated RMSC reflector achieves a low loss of 1 dB, with a reflectance difference of merely 0.33 dB compared to the simulation results. A 433 MHz SAW RFID prototype implementing RMSC reflectors on a 128°YX-LiNbO3 single-crystal substrate demonstrated a −10.63 dB peak time-domain amplitude at room temperature, representing a substantial improvement over conventional designs. Temperature characterization from −20 °C to 90 °C revealed linear functions in time delay and phase responses, with coefficients of determination (R2) exceeding 0.9999. These results validate the RMSC reflector as a high-reflectance solution for enhancing SAW RFID performance, suggesting significant potential for long-range wireless sensing applications.

Cell therapy products are rapidly transforming clinical practice, but their short shelf-lives and inability to undergo terminal sterilization create major challenges for sterility testing. Conventional rapid microbiological methods (RMMs) are hindered by the dense cellular background of therapeutic samples, which masks rare microbial contaminants and necessitates pre-analytical processing. Efficient separation of microorganisms from high-density cell suspensions is therefore a critical prerequisite for enabling real-time, in-process sterility assurance. Here, we systematically elucidate the Dean flow–dominated migration mechanism and determine its effective range for continuous, label-free separation of non-typical contaminants ≤ 5 μm in microchannels exceeding 40 μm in height. We demonstrate that particles with ap/h < 0.05 undergo exclusive Dean-induced lateral migration, while those near the inertial focusing threshold (ap/h ≈ 0.07) exhibit a Reynolds number–dependent transition between unfocused and centerline-focused streams. Leveraging these principles, we designed optimized channel geometries that achieved > 95% separation efficiency and > 96% purity of T cells versus three morphologically distinct bacteria at 10⁵ bacteria/mL. At ultra-low loads (< 10 CFU/mL), culture-based assays confirmed 100% detection for inocula > 1 CFU/mL. Our findings validate Dean migration as a governing mechanism for submicron particle separation and provide a path toward integrating microfluidic modules into closed CAR-T manufacturing platforms, advancing real-time microbial quality control in cell therapy production.

Freestanding micro-nanodevices stand out as excellent candidates for the next generation of neural interfaces. Their wireless nature, coupled with their subcellular dimensions, promises to enable minimally invasive neuromodulation with high spatial resolution within three-dimensional tissues. Nevertheless, their practical implementation is hindered by technical challenges. Specifically, fabricating and harvesting freestanding devices with subcellular sizes proves exceedingly difficult, and characterizing their functionality in a representative freestanding configuration presents an even greater challenge. In this work, we present a comprehensive framework for fabricating, collecting, and characterizing freestanding micro-nanodevices to advance progress in neural interfaces. We developed three distinct micro-nanofabrication methods tailored for manufacturing freestanding micro-nanodevices with varying characteristics. These methods include a very large-scale integration process for manufacturing and manipulating freestanding microdevices (2-200 µm) with high throughput, a cell-friendly approach utilizing only biocompatible materials and solvents for rapid microdevice production, and a protocol for fabricating and handling freestanding devices with even smaller size scale (200 nm to 3 µm). We subsequently devised an effective approach to rapidly characterize the electrical modulation capabilities of freestanding micro-nanodevices in a cell-like environment, employing artificial bilayer lipid membranes. We showcased this method by studying the variation of bilayer lipid membrane transmembrane potential in response to a light stimulus when sprinkled with organic semiconductor devices. Ultimately, we established an analytical model of the characterization system to translate experimental findings made with bilayer lipid membrane into single cells. By overcoming the technical limitations hindering the fabrication, manipulation, and characterization of freestanding micro-nanodevices, we hope that our research efforts will contribute to accelerating progress in the development of next-generation neural interfaces and unlock the full potential of neuromodulation technologies in fundamental and clinical research.

Digital micromirror device-based maskless projection lithography (DMPL) has emerged as a transformative nanopatterning platform, yet faces fundamental challenges in resolving high-density nanostructures due to optical diffraction constraints. The filtering characteristics of the pupil function and the phase modulation caused by defocus lead to pattern distortion and loss of high-frequency information, making it difficult to ensure consistency and distinguishability in dense pattern lithography. Here, we introduce multiple exposures (ME) to DMPL, developing a multiple-exposure without alignment solution to solve the problem of indistinguishable dense pattern exposure. At the same time, we also propose a novel method to maximize the spacing uniformity of the layout decomposition scheme based on the gradient descent algorithm. We further improved the depth of focus by maximizing the uniformity of spacing, achieving decoherence of sub-layouts within the laser field, thereby ensuring the printability of dense patterns. Simulations and experimental results verify that this approach significantly expands the process window and improves lithographic resolution. For one-dimensional dense lines, the minimum resolvable period decreases from 378 nm (half pitch ~ 0.5λ/NA) to 223 nm (half pitch ~ 0.3λ/NA). Furthermore, the metal layer layout of the integrated circuit chip has a minimum gap of 1 DMD pixel (75.6 nm in image plane) is achieved, demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed methods in addressing the challenges posed by dense layouts in DMPL applications. This work provides a paradigm-shifting solution to the persistent “density-fidelity trade-off” in digital nanofabrication, charting new pathways toward next-generation functional meta-devices.