Role of Paper-based Biosensor in Diagnostics

New diagnostic technologies are paper-based sensors that are multifunctional, highly flexible, absorbent, and environmentally friendly. The substrate can be used to design a cost-effective framework for disease detection, prognosis, and surveillance of illnesses that is easy, reliable, and quick in our medical healthcare sector. Paper-based devices are an extremely cheap innovation for fabricating simplified and movable diagnosing processes that can be extremely useful in resource-constrained settings like developing countries, where fully equipped infrastructure and highly skilled medical persons are unavailable. Point-of-care (POC) devices give a significant advantage over traditional procedures for in-situ measurement of illness or disease biomarkers, assisting physicians in making decisions. Paper-based analytical devices that combine paper substrates have become popular point-of-need diagnostics over the last decade. We discuss in this chapter the paper-based analytical biosensors and the classification of paper-based biosensors (PBBs) as Dipstick tests, lateral flow assay (LFAs), microfluidic biosensors, and biosensor devices (transducers and biorecognition elements). Furthermore, paper-based biosensors are used to detect malaria and other diseases. 

Keywords: Biomarker, Biosensor, Diagnosis, Fabrication, Malaria, Paper, Printing.