MOLECULAR IMMUNOLOGY

Corrie SR and Plebanski M

Molecular Immunology

DOI:  10.1016/j.molimm.2017.12.017

Nanomaterials are beginning to play an important role in the next generation of immunological assays and biosensors, with potential impacts both in research and clinical practice. In this brief review, we highlight two areas in which nanomaterials are already making new and important contributions in the past 5-10 years: firstly, in the improvement of assay and biosensor sensitivity for detection of low abundance proteins of immunological significance, and secondly, in the real-time and continuous monitoring of protein secretion from arrays of individual cells. We finish by challenging the immunology/sensing communities to work together to develop nanomaterials that can provide real-time, continuous, and sensitive molecular readouts in vivo, a lofty goal that will require significant collaborative effort.