Applications of smartphone-based colorimetric biosensors

Abstract

In vitro diagnostic (IVD) is indispensable for early identification, prevention, and follow-up treatment of many diseases, therefore developing efficient IVD methods is of significant importance and highly demanded. However, traditional clinical diagnostic methods, which often rely on bulky, complex and expensive instruments with sophisticated operations and tedious procedures, are costly and time-consuming, unsuitable for on-site diagnosis at the point of need, anytime and anywhere. Motivated by the widespread distribution and international connectivity of smartphones, as well as their powerful computing capability and built-in sensors, smartphone-based biosensors have attracted extensive attention and showed great potential as portable and affordable analytical platforms for point-of-care diagnostics. Colorimetric method is of particular interest due to its advantages of simplicity, rapidity and high universality. In this minireview, we briefly summarize the principles, characteristics and advantages of smartphone-based colorimetric biosensors, and highlight their recent advances in applications from biomedical analysis to medical diagnosis, environment monitoring and food safety.

Keywords

• Colorimetric biosensor
• Smartphone
• Point-of-care testing
• In vitro diagnostics