Biosensors based on graphene oxide and its biomedical application

Graphene oxide (GO) is one of the most attributed materials for opening new possibilities in the development of next generation biosensors. Due to the coexistence of hydrophobic domain from pristine graphite structure and hydrophilic oxygen containing functional groups, GO exhibits good water dispersibility, biocompatibility, and high affinity for specific biomolecules as well as properties of graphene itself partly depending on preparation methods. These properties of GO provided a lot of opportunities for the development of novel biological sensing platforms, including biosensors based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS), surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), and electrochemical detection. In this review, we classify GO-based biological sensors developed so far by their signal generation strategy and provide the comprehensive overview of them. In addition, we offer insights into how the GO attributed in each sensor system and how they improved the sensing performance.