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  1. This review summarizes insights into colorant selection and signal mechanisms for the development of colorimetric sensing and POC sensors.

     
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available July 29, 2025
  2. Abstract

    Delivery of proteins in plant cells can facilitate the design of desired functions by modulation of biological processes and plant traits but is currently limited by narrow host range, tissue damage, and poor scalability. Physical barriers in plants, including cell walls and membranes, limit protein delivery to desired plant tissues. Herein, a cationic high aspect ratio polymeric nanocarriers (PNCs) platform is developed to enable efficient protein delivery to plants. The cationic nature of PNCs binds proteins through electrostatic. The ability to precisely design PNCs’ size and aspect ratio allowed us to find a cutoff of ≈14 nm in the cell wall, below which cationic PNCs can autonomously overcome the barrier and carry their cargo into plant cells. To exploit these findings, a reduction‐oxidation sensitive green fluorescent protein (roGFP) is deployed as a stress sensor protein cargo in a model plantNicotiana benthamianaand common crop plants, including tomato and maize. In vivo imaging of PNC‐roGFP enabled optical monitoring of plant response to wounding, biotic, and heat stressors. These results show that PNCs can be precisely designed below the size exclusion limit of cell walls to overcome current limitations in protein delivery to plants and facilitate species‐independent plant engineering.

     
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    Free, publicly-accessible full text available August 16, 2025
  3. Robots have components that work together to accomplish a task. Colloids are particles, usually less than 100 µm, that are small enough that they do not settle out of solution. Colloidal robots are particles capable of functions such as sensing, computation, communication, locomotion and energy management that are all controlled by the particle itself. Their design and synthesis is an emerging area of interdisciplinary research drawing from materials science, colloid science, self-assembly, robophysics and control theory. Many colloidal robot systems approach synthetic versions of biological cells in autonomy and may find ultimate utility in bringing these specialized functions to previously inaccessible locations. This Perspective examines the emerging literature and highlights certain design principles and strategies towards the realization of colloidal robots. 
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  4. Abstract Nanosensors have proven to be powerful tools to monitor single cells, achieving spatiotemporal precision even at molecular level. However, there has not been way of extending this approach to statistically relevant numbers of living cells. Herein, we design and fabricate nanosensor array in microfluidics that addresses this limitation, creating a Nanosensor Chemical Cytometry (NCC). nIR fluorescent carbon nanotube array is integrated along microfluidic channel through which flowing cells is guided. We can utilize the flowing cell itself as highly informative Gaussian lenses projecting nIR profiles and extract rich information. This unique biophotonic waveguide allows for quantified cross-correlation of biomolecular information with various physical properties and creates label-free chemical cytometer for cellular heterogeneity measurement. As an example, the NCC can profile the immune heterogeneities of human monocyte populations at attomolar sensitivity in completely non-destructive and real-time manner with rate of ~600 cells/hr, highest range demonstrated to date for state-of-the-art chemical cytometry. 
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  6. Abstract

    Low-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) materials can harness tightly confined polaritonic waves to deliver unique advantages for nanophotonic biosensing. The reduced dimensionality of vdW materials, as in the case of two-dimensional graphene, can greatly enhance plasmonic field confinement, boosting sensitivity and efficiency compared to conventional nanophotonic devices that rely on surface plasmon resonance in metallic films. Furthermore, the reduction of dielectric screening in vdW materials enables electrostatic tunability of different polariton modes, including plasmons, excitons, and phonons. One-dimensional vdW materials, particularly single-walled carbon nanotubes, possess unique form factors with confined excitons to enable single-molecule detection as well as in vivo biosensing. We discuss basic sensing principles based on vdW materials, followed by technological challenges such as surface chemistry, integration, and toxicity. Finally, we highlight progress in harnessing vdW materials to demonstrate new sensing functionalities that are difficult to perform with conventional metal/dielectric sensors.

     
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