Liquid foams as sensors for the detection of biomarkers

Bioassays are widely used in healthcare to detect and quantify biomarkers, such as molecules or enzymes, which are crucial in monitoring diseases and health conditions. In developed countries, healthcare professionals use specialized reagents and equipment’s to perform these bioassays. However, in less-industrialized countries, the creation of low cost, fast, and technically simple bioassays is required. Herein, we propose a simple approach for detecting biochemical markers using host–guest complexes containing a surfactant. When the biochemical marker is present, the host–guest complex is disrupted, releasing the surfactant and producing foam. The read-out mechanism relies on the change of foam volume as function of biomarker concentration. This change is quantifiable by the naked eye and can be measured with a simple ruler. We claim that the use of foams as sensing tool is an attractive, inexpensive, fast, and easy to handle on-site detection method.