Survey of the year 2007 commercial optical biosensor literature

In 2007, 1179 papers were published that involved the application of optical biosensors. Reported developments in instrument hardware, assay design, and immobilization chemistry continue to improve the technology's throughput, sensitivity, and utility. Compared to recent years, the widest range of platforms, both traditional format and array-based, were used. However, as in the past, we found a disappointingly low percentage of well-executed experiments and thoughtful data interpretation. We are alarmed by the high frequency of suboptimal data and over-interpreted results in the literature. Fortunately, learning to visually recognize good--and more importantly, bad--data is easy. Using examples from the literature, we outline several features of biosensor responses that indicate experimental artifacts versus actual binding events. Our goal is to have everyone, from benchtop scientists to project managers and manuscript reviewers, become astute judges of biosensor results using nothing more than their eyes.