Advanced nanomaterials as sample technique for bio-analysis

The biological compositions including cells, proteins/peptides, nucleic acids, extracellular vesicles (EVs) and metabolites are no doubt closely related to almost all physiological and pathological events in organism. Parts of them with specific characteristics can serve as therapeutic target or even disease indicator at early stage. However, all of them especially the specific portion associated with diseases are surrounded by complex environment where there are a large number of high-abundance proteins and salts and the like, leading to difficulties in direct analysis for them. Much efforts have been made to solve this problem, among which nanomaterials with outstanding flexibility in preparation and manipulation are attracting great attention. In this review, we provide a relatively comprehensive elaboration on recent advancement of nanomaterials as sample technique for bio-analysis, focusing on their preparation and application in all the above-mentioned biological compositions. Furthermore, the limits and development tendency of nanomaterials in this field are proposed.