EditorialNanotechnologies for Biosensor and Biochip

Moon Il Kim,1 Tae Jung Park,2 Elena E. Paskaleva,3 Fangfang Sun,4

Jin W. Seo,5 and Krunal K. Mehta6

1Department of BioNano Technology, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnamdae-ro, Sujeong-gu,Seongnam, Gyeonggi 461-701, Republic of Korea2Department of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 06974, Republic of Korea3Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA4College of Life Information Science and Instrument Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Xiasha,Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China5Departement Materiaalkunde (MTM), KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, Bus 2450, 3001 Leuven, Belgium6Pivotal Purification Process Development, Amgen, Inc., Cambridge, MA 02142, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to Moon Il Kim; moonil@gachon.ac.kr

Received 3 December 2015; Accepted 3 December 2015

Copyright © 2015 Moon Il Kim et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The biosensing devices are characterized by their biologicalreceptors, which have specificity to their correspondinganalytes. These analytes are a vast and diverse group ofbiological molecules, DNAs, proteins (such as antibodies),fatty acids, or entire biological systems, such as pathogenicbacteria, viruses, cancerous cells, or other living organisms. Amain challenge in the development of biosensor applicationsis the efficient recognition of a biological signal in a lowsignal-to-noise ratio environment, and its transduction intoan electrochemical, optical, or other signals. The advent ofnanomaterial technology greatly increased the potential forachieving exquisite sensitivity of such devises, due to theinnate high surface-to-volume ratio and high reactivity ofthe nanomaterial. The second major challenge facing thebiosensor application, that of scalability, is addressed bymultiplexing and miniaturizing of the biosensor devises intoa biochip. In recent years, biosensor and biochip technolo-gies have made significant progress by taking advantagesof diverse kinds of nanomaterials that are derived fromnanotechnology [1–3].

These materials exhibit unique optical, electronic, mag-netic, and catalytic properties, which can be essentially uti-lized to develop novel biosensors that yield highly enhancedsensitivity, selectivity, and other attributes. Furthermore, thenewly developed nanomaterials provide a particularly useful

platform for the development of biochips that are ideallysuited to meet the demands of biomolecules to facilitatevarious kinds of biological events. In this special issue, toprovide chemists, biochemists, material engineers, and bio-engineers with a perspective on the current state-of-the-artof this emerging nanobiotechnological research field, severalexcellent research results and a comprehensive review onnanotechnologies for biosensor and biochip were reported.

The paper by Y.M. Bae et al. is focused on the applicabilityof localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) substrate withgold nanoparticle array to detect relevant biomarkers. In thiswork, the LSPR substrate was first fabricated with a lift-offprocess and its LSPR phenomenonwas confirmed bymeasur-ing the optical transmission level of the substrate. Then, theantibodies with a high affinity toward target molecules wereimmobilized on the gold nanoparticle array.The immobiliza-tion was confirmed by observing the shift of LSPR peak ofthe resultant substrate.These newLSPR substrates conjugatedwith antibodies were successfully applied to detect low-and high-density lipoproteins, which are biomarkers fordiagnosing and monitoring of cardiovascular disease.

The colorimetric activity of magnetic nanoparticles(MNPs) was employed to develop a unique biosensor. J. Y.Park et al. reported a colorimetric biosensor based on theperoxidase-like activity of magnetic nanoparticles and DNA

Hindawi Publishing CorporationJournal of NanomaterialsVolume 2015, Article ID 420734, 2 pageshttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/420734

2 Journal of Nanomaterials

aptamers having a high affinity toward a target food pathogenSalmonella typhimurium. In this assay system, MNPs werefirst incubated with aptamers that specifically interact withthe target bacterial cells, reducing the peroxidase activity ofthe MNPs through DNA-mediated shielding of the catalyticactivity. After the addition of target Salmonella cells into thesolution, specific aptamers on the MNPs interact with theSalmonella, consequently enhancing the peroxidase activityof the MNPs. Overall, the presence and quantity of targetSalmonella cells were successfully detected by the colori-metric response produced from the peroxidase-like activityof MNPs. Based on the results, the authors propose thatthis label-free colorimetric biosensor would be invaluable fordetecting DNA-DNA, DNA-protein, DNA-cell, and DNA-ligand interactions due to its ease of use, low cost, capabilityto detect with naked eye, and the high stability of MNPs.

C. S. Park et al. investigated the cytotoxicity, particu-larly autophagy, in RAW264.7 cells exposed to grapheneoxide (GO) and its derivatives including dodecylamine-GO, reduced GO, and sodium dodecyl sulfate-reduced GO.They showed that all the GO types exerted cytotoxic effectson RAW264.7 cells in a concentration-dependent manner.Higher concentrations of the GO types downregulated theexpression of PU.1, a unique transcription factor in mono-cytes and macrophages, and decreased the conversion ofLC3A/B-I to LC3A/B-II, suggesting that PU.1 was asso-ciated with autophagy in RAW264.7 cells. These resultssuggest that surface-functionalized GOs exert cytotoxiceffects in a concentration-dependent manner by changingthe expression of critical genes and inducing autophagy inmacrophages.

A binary immiscible polymer blended system withhigh stability is also reported by J.-H. Kim et al. Inthis article, domain structures of spin-coated immisciblepoly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and ultraviolet curablepoly(urethane acrylate) (PUA) blends were studied usingatomic force microscopy (AFM). Since the cross-linkedPUA in the polymer-blended films provided strong chemicalstability in various solvents, target materials for dissolutioncould be selectively available via a simple curing process. Inaddition, morphology of the PMMA/PUA blends, includingdomain size, height, and nanoscale features, could be easilycontrolled by changing composition of the blends. Based onthe results, the authors suggest potentials for various applica-tions related to nanotextured surfaces and soft lithography.

The electronic and molecular structure of dopedgraphene was theoretically investigated with solid-statedensity functional calculations. Y. H. Hwang et al. studiedthe graphene-organic molecule complex, referred to asorganic doping in material science community. With thedensity functional calculations, the authors determinedthe role of amine-based aromatic compounds in graphenedoping, binding to graphene through long-range interactionssuch as 𝜋-𝜋 interactions and C-H⋅ ⋅ ⋅ 𝜋 hydrogen bonding.The electronic structures of pristine graphene were comparedto that of doped graphene to help understand the electronicstructure of the material at molecular level. In addition tothe investigation of the molecular interactions, the papershowed that screening of organic molecules would benefit

from a sold-state density functional calculation to predictthe experimental results from doping or sensing organicmolecules with graphene.

A comprehensive review on recent nanozyme (nano-material-based artificial enzymes) research is presented byH.Y. Shin et al. It covers the fundamentals and the applicationsfor development of novel biosensors, immunoassays, cancerdiagnostics, and therapeutics, as well as environmental engi-neering technologies. The review concludes with discussionon the current challenges and future prospects of usingnanozymes in biotechnology.

We hope that this special issue will provide new insightsand research motivation to the interested readers for furtheradvancement in biosensor and biochip applications throughstate-of-the-art nanotechnology.

Acknowledgment

Wewould like to thank all authors for their valuable contribu-tions to this special issue. We also would like to acknowledgethe referees for their indispensable efforts to improve thequality of this special issue.

Moon Il KimTae Jung Park

Elena E. PaskalevaFangfang Sun

Jin W. SeoKrunal K. Mehta

References

[1] Y. Song, W. Wei, and X. Qu, “Colorimetric biosensing usingsmart materials,” Advanced Materials, vol. 23, no. 37, pp. 4215–4236, 2011.

[2] H. Wei and E. Wang, “Nanomaterials with enzyme-like char-acteristics (nanozymes): next-generation artificial enzymes,”Chemical Society Reviews, vol. 42, no. 14, pp. 6060–6093, 2013.

[3] Y. Xia, Y. Xiong, B. Lim, and S. E. Skrabalak, “Shape-controlledsynthesis of metal nanocrystals: simple chemistry meets com-plex physics?” Angewandte Chemie—International Edition, vol.48, no. 1, pp. 60–103, 2009.

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