News item: Lab-on-a-Chip Devices for Diagnostics - the recent topical issue of Journal of Biophotonics

While a number of biosensors are based on measuring electrical, magnetic, or mechanical signals, there is a growing field applying optical and photonic sensing in miniaturized systems. Classical biophotonic sensing uses the detection either of photons from fluorescence markers, or of the change of refractive indices upon a biological binding event to transducer elements. Alternative approaches apply highly integrated imaging on-chip either as pattern recognition or as advanced microscopy.

This topical issue, edited by Timo Mappes (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie – KIT, Germany) and Holger Schmidt (Univ. of California, USA), aims for providing a representative and comprehensive overview on the broad range of current biophotonics on-chip, spanning the full range from chip fabrication to applications in biomedical sensing and related fields. To this end, a balanced mix of original research work and reviews for broader perspective is presented.