Abstract
Advances in micro- and nanotechnology, as well as advances in imaging technology, have transformed life sciences and biomedical research. In particular, these advances have led to changes in many research assays moving from qualitative outputs toward increasingly sensitive quantitative outputs. These improvements have touched many areas of research from fundamental biological applications such as developmental biology and biochemical analysis to biomedical applications in a range of diseases such as cancer and infectious diseases. In this SLAS Technology special issue titled Micro- and Nanotechnologies for Quantitative Biology and Medicine, we highlight technologies that are improving life sciences and biomedical research and diagnostics through improvements in researchers’ and clinicians’ ability to detect and quantify increasingly complex assays.
Improvements in assay design such as data partitioning as well as improvements in micro- and nanotechnologies have led to the development of digital assays that are capable of improving detection sensitivity and quantification of outputs.1,2 Advances in digital assays can allow for quantification of rare mutations in increasingly smaller sample volumes, including single-cell analysis. Beyond genomic analysis, digital assays also allow for quantitative single-cell analysis of a range of other molecular biological outputs, including cell movement and protein expression. Advances in digital assays allow for more comprehensive analysis of heterogeneous populations as well as rare biological samples, such as circulating tumor cells.
Implementation of microfluidic technologies into all aspects of assay development sample collection, sample trapping, and detection can improve a wide range of life sciences and biomedical research applications. Implementing microfluidic flow cells into microscope slide formats allows for improved label-free detection of molecule-protein interactions with increased sensitivity as well as a 10× increase in array sample size, allowing for an increased depth of analysis as well as a larger number of proteins interrogated per array slide. 3 Improvements to assay design through incorporation of microfluidic technologies can also improve mechanobiological studies by improving control of external force input, such as regulation of extracellular matrix stiffness. 4 Microfluidic technologies can also be used toward improving tissue dissection and sample processing to improve analysis of smaller sample sizes in quantitative assays related to cancer diagnostics, developmental biology, and drug screening.5–7
Micro- and nanotechnological advances in quantitative analysis have also been demonstrated to improve diagnostics and quantitative phenotypic analysis during drug screening. Accurate detection of species-specific ribosomal RNA can be implemented through electrochemical biosensors to improve detecting blood bacterial infections. 8 Alternatively, advances in sensor design can allow for equipment-free diagnostic devices against other infectious diseases with high sensitivity. 9 Although these are emerging technological applications, current implementation of miniaturization technology paired with improved imaging analysis software allows for quantitative phenotypic analysis of increasingly complex samples, such as three-dimensional spheroids, in high-throughput drug-screening applications. 10 Advances in quantitative analysis through the micro- and nanotechnologies presented and reviewed in this special issue are examples of how technology is improving our world and pushing the limits of what is possible in life sciences and biomedical research.