Optical smartphone-based sensing: diagnostic of biomarkers

Biomarkers are nucleic acids, peptides, proteins, lipids metabolites, or other small molecules in human tissues or biological fluids whose accurate detection contributes to the prediction and determination of diseases and their status. In recent years, platforms that allow the detection of important biomarkers at the point-of-care (PoC) are moving the field of diagnostics towards personalized medicine. In order to comply with the REASSURED criteria stated by the WHO, the most efficient solution is to integrate PoC devices with smartphones. Without a doubt the smartphone camera is a “smart detector,” and almost all the optical-based methods have been integrated, including absorbance, fluorescence, microscopic bio-imaging, surface plasmon resonance, chemiluminescence, bioluminescence, and photoluminescence. In this chapter, we explain how smartphones can be used as smart detectors in diagnostic devices and we will provide an overview of recent developments of smartphone-based optical PoC devices.