Dear Colleagues,

Human health is intrinsically linked to a healthy planet, requiring a rich biodiversity and well-balanced ecosystems. We need clean air to breathe, healthy soils and insects to grow crops, healthy animals and plants for human nutrition, and clean water resources. Ironically, it is us humans who have a severe impact on the decline of biodiversity and ecosystems. Continued urbanization has drastically increased the level of air pollution, damaging plant and tree life needed to help to regulate air quality. Growing human populations have also resulted in more people living in close contact with animals, providing more opportunities for diseases to pass between the two groups. The number of livestock animals has increased with the growth in the world’s population, leading to intensive farming practices, including the overconsumption of antibiotics, potentially leading to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria can cause foodborne infections via contaminated meat, milk or eggs. Microplastics and metals are ubiquitous in the environment and in marine water.

Thanks to technological advances in materials, sources, and detectors, together with recent progress in modeling and design and data processing, photonic biosensors are under extensive development. These highly sensitive and selective biosensors, which are in many cases remotely applicable and often small and inexpensive, frequently combine multidisciplinary research.

The goal of this Special Issue is to invite state-of-the-art research papers that deal with any type of photonics-based biosensors for the monitoring of the health status of our planet’s ecosystem. Additionally, contributions on novel methods or techniques potentially leading to improved photonics-based biosensors are welcomed. A preference is given to non-human environmental (air, soils, water) and biological (plants, trees, crops, animals) elements. We solicit original papers of unpublished and completed research that are not currently under review. Keywords include but are not limited to the following: photonics-based biosensors, novel methods or techniques, environmental monitoring, soil monitoring, air monitoring, water monitoring, detection of hazardous materials, agriculture, food monitoring, food processing, veterinary sensors for pet and farm animals, organ-on-a-chip as a replacement of animal models. More specifically, we are interested in:

• Photonics-based biosensors, novel methods or techniques for environmental monitoring (air, soils, water, detection of hazardous materials, etc.);
• Photonics-based biosensors, novel methods or techniques with applications in the agriculture domain or in food processing;
• Photonics-based biosensors, novel methods or techniques with applications in the veterinary domain, including pet and farm animals;
• Photonics-based biosensors, novel methods or techniques that enhance the wellbeing of animals (for example, organ-on-chip sensors as replacement of animal models).

Prof. Dr. Wendy Meulebroeck
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Biosensors is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• photonics-based sensors
• spectroscopy
• environmental monitoring
• food quality and safety
• agricultural biosensors
• cell and tissue sensing
• organ-on-a-chip
• lab-on-a-chip
• point-of-care
• in vitro sensing