Overreliance on Cost Reduction as a Featured Element of Sensor Design

In this Perspective, we examine the role of cost in sensor design, its meaning within the context of converting academic prototypes into commercial products, and the importance of these issues to clear scientific communication. The possible motivations to consider the cost of a technology, sensor, or assay are both numerous and apparent. However, the idea that the cost of reagents and materials at the laboratory scale will directly translate to the purchase price for a user is inaccurate. While calculating the bill of materials is easy, there are many business considerations that make commercial products entirely different from academic prototypes. With these critical aspects of commercialization considered, academics are often not equipped to predict what the final price of an assay, sensor, or instrument will be to the end user. When used without proper context and accuracy, an overreliance on the phrase "low cost" in the absence of a sufficient discussion of cost weakens the meaning of this popular term and precludes practical scientific advancements. To demonstrate how the relationship between a bill of materials and "expected purchase price" breaks down when considering academic innovations, we discuss pregnancy tests as a case study where an academic bill of materials can lead to both overestimations and underestimations of pricing.