Smartphone fluorescence spectroscopy

ABSTRACT: We demonstrate the first use of smartphone spectrophotometry for readout of fluorescence-based biological assays. We evaluated the smartphone fluorimeter in the context of a fluorescent molecular beacon (MB) assay for detection of specific nucleic acid sequences in a liquid test sample and compared performance against a conventional laboratory fluorimeter. The capability of distinguishing a one-point mismatch is also demonstrated by detecting single-base mutation in target nucleic acids. Our approach offers a route toward portable biomolecular assays for viral/bacterial pathogens, disease biomarkers, and toxins. There is tremendous interest in transition laboratory-basedbiomolecular assays to mobile platforms that would enable disease diagnostics tests, pathogen detection, and toxin detection to be performed in point-of-use scenarios. Since the introduction of smartphones, hundreds of millions of th