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Genetic testing plays an important role in human health management and disease prevention. However, traditional genetic testing methods have been unable to fulfill the current diagnostic needs owing to several limitations, including high cost, complexity, and difficulty in performing. Smartphones have multiple inherent advantages, such as easy portability, ubiquity, fast processing speed, and excellent imaging capabilities, and have enormous potential in realizing rapid on‐site genetic testing. The present review documents the research progress of smartphone‐based optical imaging biosensors in the fields of colorimetry, fluorescence, and microscopic imaging for genetic testing. Furthermore, the review describes their potential applications in diagnostics, which range from infectious diseases to hereditary diseases and cancers. Finally, the challenges and perspectives of smartphone‐based optical imaging biosensors regarding genetic testing are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enzyme-free amplification techniques empower the easy-operable and cost-effective analysis of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which garnered considerable extensive attention. However, the sensitivity and reliability of enzyme-free amplification technology are limited to meet the needs of biomedical diagnosis. Herein, we develop a dual-mode biosensing strategy that combines target-induced double DNA release and enzyme-free amplification for both electrochemical and fluorescent SNP detections. This strategy utilizes mutant SNP to activate entropy-driven amplifier (EDA) system, a cyclic strand displacement reaction, achieving the release of two single-strand DNA. These EDA by-products of target-induced release are ingeniously used as synchronized inputs for electrochemical and fluorescent measurements to fabricate circularly amplified hybridization chain reaction (HCR) and catalytic hairpin reaction (CHA) respectively. Such flexible strategy of dual-mode biosensing platform can not only make effective use of EDA by-products originally wasteful to elevate identification and amplification efficiency, but also improve the detection reliability. Moreover, leveraging the programmability and integration of classical enzyme-free cascaded amplification, this dual "signal-on" biosensor flexibly achieves high sensitivity detection and good selectivity, which holds great promise in the fields of early disease diagnosis. • A dual-mode biosensor is designed for SNP detection. • Enzyme-free technique is used for SNP identification and amplification. • Target-induced release of two ssDNA were synchronized as electrochemical and fluorescent inputs. • This biosensor can flexible avoid the waste of products and improve the reliability of detection. • The dual "signal-on" biosensor achieves high sensitivity with a detection limit of 26.2 aM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]