Biomedical Applications: Liposomes and Supported Lipid Bilayers for Diagnostics, Theranostics, Imaging, Vaccine Formulation, and Tissue Engineering

Abstract

Clinical diagnostic strategies mainly focus on the detection and quantification of biotargets (e.g., lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins) from circulation or other bodily fluids [1]. Developing reliable, inexpensive, and robust diagnostic assays at the point-of-care has revitalized existing platforms by paving the way for more individualized monitoring and increased accessibility to diagnostics in remote and resource-limited settings. Despite the utility and broad audience of DNA microarray-based diagnostic technologies [2], developing protein arrays has still obstacles due to their fragile nature, limiting their three-dimensional (3-D) structure and functionality outside their native milieu. The need for novel analytical concepts is hence inevitable. In the next sections, we provide multiple liposome and SLB-based systems that are seeking to address these challenges in the realm of diagnostics.