Smartphone-based analytical biosensors

The traditional analytical biosensor instruments are relatively bulky, expensive, and not easy to handle, thus their applications are largely limited in resource-limited settings. The recent development of microfluidic lab-on-a-chip (LOC) technology has provided a possible solution to miniaturize the conventional biosensing system, yet other accessory devices to detect, readout, analyze, transfer, and display results are still required. With the rapid development, mass production, and pervasive distribution of smartphones in recent years, they have provided people with portable, cost-effective, and easy-to-operate platforms to build analytical biosensors for point-of-care (POC) applications and mobile health. Based on the common analytical methods, this paper reviews the recent development of four types of smartphone based analytical biosensory systems at the POC, i.e., smartphone-based microscopic imaging, colorimetric, electrochemical, and electrochemiluminescence biosensor. The different bio-sensing strategies and analytical performance together with future perspectives are discussed.