SERS-Based Diagnosis and Biodetection

Surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful analytical techniques for identification of molecular species, with the potential to reach single‐molecule detection under ambient conditions. This Concept article presents a brief introduction and discussion of both recent advances and limitations of SERS in the context of diagnosis and biodetection, ranging from direct sensing to the use of encoded nanoparticles, in particular focusing on ultradetection of relevant bioanalytes, rapid diagnosis of diseases, marking of organelles within individual cells, and non‐invasive tagging of anomalous tissues in living animals. Surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) offers solutions for a diverse array of biomedical applications. Metal nanoparticles can be engineered to carry SERS barcodes, as well as selective biomolecular recognition elements, so that applications in vitro can be devised, such as labeling and diagnosis. Implementation requires nanoparticle stability in biological fluids, single‐event recognition detection, label‐free analysis, classification, and quantification.