Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy for bioanalysis and diagnosis.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Bioanalytical Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is a rapidly advancing field.
• SERS offers high sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities for bioanalysis and diagnosis.
• Its applications are expanding, including in vivo studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive survey of SERS-based assays.
• To focus on SERS for pathogen detection as point-of-care solutions.
• To explore in vivo applications and future prospects of SERS.

Main Methods:

• Review of SERS-based assays and their fundamental principles.
• Analysis of SERS applications in biological sensing, drug delivery, and live cell imaging.
• Focus on SERS for early cancer detection and rapid pathogen identification.

Main Results:

• SERS enables rapid detection of molecular species via direct and indirect strategies.
• Nanostructure tunability allows diverse clinical applications.
• SERS shows significant potential for early bacterial infection detection and chronic disease diagnosis.

Conclusions:

• SERS is a reliable technique for rapid and sensitive bioanalysis and diagnosis.
• SERS-based pathogen detection offers promising point-of-care solutions.
• Further research into in vivo applications and overcoming limitations is warranted.