Healthcare is at a pivot. Rising costs, growing chronic disease burdens, inequities in access and the demand for earlier diagnosis and continuous monitoring are all pushing diagnostics to move closer to the patient. Point‑of‑care (POC) testing promises to shift care out of central labs and into clinics or at home. In this transformation, electrochemical biosensors are central as they hold enormous potential for non‑invasive, rapid diagnostics using affordable platforms.
That said, moving from promise to widespread use is far from straightforward. Many electrochemical sensors demonstrate excellent sensitivity in the lab, but struggle in real biological samples or when scaled to low‑cost manufacturing. Costly materials, limited stability and sample matrix interference can erode performance. It is here that advances in electrode materials with improved conductivity, biocompatibility, reproducibility and lower cost are especially important.
Electrochemical biosensors combine several features that align neatly with what point‑of‑care demands. First, they can work with very small sample volumes, which is key when using non‑invasive fluids like saliva, sweat or interstitial fluid. Second, their instrumentation can be relatively simple and low power compared with optical, mass‑spectroscopy or imaging‑based diagnostics. Third, they can deliver rapid responses within minutes or even near‑real‑time. When deployed well, they reduce the need for expensive lab infrastructure, trained personnel, cold‑chain reagents and long turnaround times.
Non‑invasive sampling is especially critical. Puncture tests (e.g. finger‑pricks for glucose) can be painful, risk infection or injury, require careful disposal and discourage frequent use. Saliva, sweat and other biofluids eliminate many of those drawbacks. But often these non‑invasive matrices pose new technical difficulties:
Even though there has been considerable progress, several interlocking challenges remain when it comes to the widespread deployment of electrochemical biosensors in point-of-care applications.
One major problem is materials cost and fabrication complexity. Many sensors use precious metals (gold, platinum) or materials that are difficult to reproduce like graphene and require multi‑step surface treatments. These both drive up cost and often contribute to batch‑to‑batch variation. For devices to be affordable at scale, materials and processes must be simplified, low cost, reproducible and ideally manufacturable in large volumes without loss of performance.
Stability and lifetime remain concerns. Enzyme‑based sensors (e.g. glucose oxidase) are often sensitive and selective, but degrade with heat, pH changes or through repeated use. Functionalisation layers (antibodies, aptamers, enzymes) can degrade, detach, or become fouled in real biological fluids. Non‑enzymatic sensors avoid some of this, but often face lower specificity or require harsher operating conditions.
Sensitivity vs. interference is another challenge. In saliva or sweat, biomarker concentrations may be 10‑100x or more lower than in blood, and the sample contains salts, proteins, mucins etc. that interfere (physically or electrochemically). Sensors need to discriminate the target analyte from background noise, maintain low limit of detection (LOD), and show low drift over time.
Manufacturability and scalability are of course fundamental to PoC. It is one thing to produce a few sensors in a lab under tight environmental control, but quite another to manufacture thousands or millions with the same crucial features and sensitivity. Fluidics, electronics, durability, packaging and reproducibility all need to be engineered for mass production.
User experience and sample‑matrix issues matter a great deal. For wearable or continuous monitoring sensors, the device must survive flexing, sweat, motion, changing temperature and humidity and maintain stable contact. Also, non‑invasive biofluids often vary over time (e.g., sweat rate, saliva composition), making calibration and standardisation difficult.
Many of the key obstacles facing point-of-care biosensors trace back to the limitations of conventional electrode materials. What’s needed is a material that delivers high electrical performance and excellent sensitivity whilst at the same time having stable surface chemistry and a fabrication method compatible with low-cost, scalable production.
A new class of engineered carbon nanomaterials is now emerging that directly addresses many of these pain points, offering both performance and practicality for next-generation devices. Electrodes built with this material benefit from:
Beyond raw performance, this material offers significant advantages in chemical stability and manufacturing viability. Its structure supports a wide range of surface and production benefits, including:
These features make the material particularly well-suited for real-world diagnostic applications. Its anti-fouling properties help maintain signal fidelity in unprocessed biological fluids and the low-cost fabrication process avoids the need for rare metals or complex composites, supporting affordability at scale.
Just as importantly, the material can be produced with high batch-to-batch consistency, addressing one of the key barriers to commercialisation and regulatory approval. Altogether, this innovative carbon nanomaterial provides a rare combination of sensitivity, robustness and scalability to bridge the gap between lab-based performance and practical, point-of-care deployment.
The future of diagnostics is moving out of the laboratory and into the hands of patients. But getting there requires materials that can deliver performance, scalability and reliability in real-world settings.
Gii is that material.
Engineered as a next-generation carbon nanomaterial, Gii combines exceptional electrical performance with stability in complex biofluids, inherent anti-fouling properties and a scalable, low-cost fabrication process. It bridges the longstanding gap between lab-based sensitivity and real-world usability, supporting everything from saliva-based glucose testing to wearable health monitors.
For innovators developing the next wave of point-of-care devices, Gii directly accelerates the path to market. With Gii at the core of your sensor platform, you’re building with a material made for the future of diagnostics. To learn more about the future of biosensing and POC, download our guide below.