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  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

Light-based sensors set to revolutionize on-site testing

Nanophotonic biosensors exploit light’s properties to detect molecular interactions in real time at the point of need.
  1. Diana Kwon

    1. Diana Kwon is a freelance science journalist based in Berlin.

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Simon Forest uses a pipette to add drops of maple syrup to a suspension of gold nanoparticles in a test tube to test its purity

Researcher Simon Forest tests maple syrup for off-flavour compounds using a nanophotonic biosensor developed by a team in Canada. Credit: Amélie Philibert, Université de Montréal

In March 2019, chemist Jean-François Masson and his colleagues were at a Canadian sugar shack in Quebec testing one of the province’s biggest exports: maple syrup. The researchers were there to assess a new type of quality-control device capable of detecting flavour-distorting molecules that typically go unnoticed by the untrained tongue.

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Nature 607, 834-836 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02043-w

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