Innovative Biorecognition Elements for Next-Generation Biosensors

The rapid evolution of biosensor technology is transforming healthcare, environmental monitoring, and diagnostics. While traditional biosensors often use antibodies and enzymes as recognition elements, new alternatives—such as aptamers, non-antibody proteins, glyco-ligands, molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), nanozymes—offer unique benefits, including greater stability, versatility, and specificity. Integrating these advanced biorecognition elements with microfluidics and flexible electronics paves the way for wearable, portable, and real-time lab-on-chip devices.

Harnessing advanced recognition elements offers improved sensor reliability and functional diversity. These biosensors can address a variety of emerging challenges, from disease diagnostics to environmental toxin detection, in particular when they are integrated within lab-on-chip devices that enable point-of-care or point-of-sampling analyte detection.

The aim of this Research Topic is to bring perspective, review and original research papers that:

Assess and compare the performance of aptamers, non-antibody proteins, glyco-ligands, MIPs and other biorecognition elements with conventional antibody-based and enzyme-based systems in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and robustness.

Design and fabricate biosensor prototypes for key analytical targets relevant to health or environmental monitoring.

Evaluate prototype biosensors using real or complex samples, focusing on stability, accuracy, and practical usability.

Provide recommendations for real-world deployment and further optimization

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Advanced biorecognition elements, Aptamer-based biosensors, Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), Non-antibody protein scaffolds, Glyco-ligand recognition, Nanozymes, Microfluidic lab-on-chip, Flexible/wearable biosensors, Point-of-care/point-of-sampling

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.