Gooding is one of the world's most-cited biosensor scientists (inaugural editor-in-chief of ACS Sensors) and runs a group of over thirty researchers spanning surface chemistry, electrochemistry and nanomedicine. The sensing programme that matters here is the move from ensemble to digital, single-molecule-resolved detection: nanoparticle-tethered electrochemical sensors in which single binding events are counted rather than averaged, nanopore blockade sensors for protein biomarkers such as PSA, amplification-free nucleic-acid detection, and antifouling surface chemistries that make any of this work in real biological fluid. He has a strong commercialisation record (AgaMatrix glucose sensors). Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — his single-molecule-counting philosophy is the biosensing analogue of moving from a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble to single-spin detection: in both cases the sensitivity gain comes from resolving individual events rather than improving an averaged signal. He is also the obvious collaborator for anyone trying to functionalise a diamond or nanoparticle quantum sensor for a real analyte.
Kelley designs nanostructured electrochemical biosensors -- including antifouling 'spiky' nanoelectrodes -- for amplification-free, point-of-care detection of nucleic acids and proteins (e.g. bacterial mRNA), aiming to replace slow, lab-based amplification assays with rapid electronic diagnostics deployable at the bedside.
Ladame develops biosensors and molecular diagnostic assays that detect cell-free circulating nucleic acid biomarkers (DNA/RNA) directly, without enzymatic amplification, for applications in early disease diagnosis and monitoring.
McKendry co-directs Q-BIOMED, the UK's national quantum-biomedical-sensing research hub (UKRI/NIHR, ~GBP24M), which brings NV-diamond and other quantum sensors into clinical diagnostics. Her own group has developed nitrogen-vacancy nanodiamond-labelled lateral-flow and rapid molecular tests -- including a quantum-enhanced SARS-CoV-2 antigen test and single-molecule HIV RNA detection -- that exploit resonant microwave control of the NV spin state to separate signal from background and push rapid point-of-care diagnostics toward single-molecule sensitivity, a direct human-diagnostics application of quantum sensing.
Mirkin invented spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) -- gold nanoparticles densely coated with a radial shell of oligonucleotides -- and their 'nanoflare' derivatives, which enter live cells without transfection agents and light up sequence-specifically upon binding intracellular mRNA, enabling live-cell gene-expression biosensing, circulating-tumor-cell isolation, and simultaneous mRNA detection/regulation. This label-based intracellular biosensing platform is offered as a borderline but well-established inclusion under the biosensing/dye-based imaging criterion.
O'Hare develops electrochemical and optical biosensors for point-of-care and near-patient diagnostics, including miRNA cancer biomarker detection and exhaled-breath-condensate analysis for respiratory and metabolic disease monitoring.
Develops single-molecule genomics technologies using nanofluidics and optical mapping to analyze whole genomes and structural variation.
Soh's lab engineers aptamer- and SOMAmer-based electrochemical biosensors capable of real-time, continuous molecular measurement (drugs, metabolites, proteins) directly in living systems, aiming for closed-loop, quantitative point-of-care and in vivo diagnostics.
Develops ultrasensitive, amplification-free nucleic-acid biosensors and molecular barcodes for high-resolution, multiplexed biosensing and diagnostics, alongside targeted drug/mRNA delivery platforms.
Whitesides' group pioneered soft lithography and paper-based microfluidics, and has long applied these tools to low-cost point-of-care diagnostic biosensors for global health settings. Included as a borderline, not-preferred biosensing case: the sensing target (colorimetric/electrochemical assays) is compelling but device-fabrication-centric rather than a cutting-edge-sensitivity physical sensor.