Boronic acid-based sensors: from fundamental chemistry to optimized biosensing platforms

Boronic acid (BA)-based sensors have recently gained traction as a versatile platform for molecular recognition, leveraging their ability to form reversible interactions with diols, anions, and nitrogen-containing species. Their diverse reactivities have driven their adoption across a multitude of disciplines, from clinical diagnostics and food quality control to environmental monitoring. Despite this promise, BA-based sensors remain underutilized due to insufficient attention to foundational BA design principles, including pH optimization, structural tuning, susceptibility to protodeboronation, and the underuse of computational modelling. In this review, we critically survey recent advances in BA-based sensors across application domains, highlight the work of the Haynes and Sumerlin groups towards BA system optimization, and offer actionable design recommendations to address these gaps in future sensor designs, thereby accelerating the broader deployment of BA-based sensors in real-world settings.