Congratulations Udara! your manuscript has been accepted for publication as open accesss in Advanced Materials Interfaces Wiley.

The manuscript entitled Lab-in-a-Bead: Magnetic Janus Bead Probe for the Detection of Biomarkers in Blood by Udara Bimendra Gunatilake, Adriana Caballe-Abalos, Sandra Garcia-Rey, Jon Mercader-Ruiz, Lourdes Basabe-Desmonts and Fernando Benito-Lopez deals with a novel Janus bead configuration formed by the incorporation of ferromagnetic iron microparticles into a TiO2 nanotubes/alginate hydrogel bead biosystem, under an applied magnetic field. The so-called hydrogel Janus bead showed both, magnetic translocation and biosensing properties in the same bead. These beads are used for the direct colorimetric analysis of biomarkers in blood. The surface of the Janus bead prevents the biofouling of red blood cells, keeping the sensor surface clean for accurate optical colorimetric analysis. Moreover, the external magnetic manipulation of the bead permits precise control of the time and position of the bead in the sample. Therefore, the multiple functionalities presented by a single magnetic TiO2 nanotubes/alginate Janus bead such as actuation, low biofouling and sensing, position this technology as a truly Lab-in a-Bead System.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202202459