Review Articles in 2021

A natural plant leaf compared with a highly engineered nature-inspired artifically fabricated leaf.

Owing to their ultrasmall size effect, nanoparticles (NPs) have been extensively researched in biomedicine for potential applications. They can frequently interact with cells in vivo, forming a series of nano-bio interfaces. The resulting nano-bio interfaces play an important role in dominating the physiological effects of NPs. This review will summarize the progress in nano-bio interface interactions based on theoretical models and simulations. The expected goal of this review is to determine how the properties of NPs affect their interaction with cell membranes, to guide the rational de novo design of NPs, and expand their potential biomedical applications.

The state of the art in nanopore sensors and devices is reviewed focusing the progress toward their applications beyond the single-molecule sequencing.

DNA double helix exploiting Watson–Crick base-pairing lays the foundation of DNA nanotechnology. However, other forms of nucleic acids (e.g., triplex, i-motif, and G-quadruplex) exhibiting noncanonical base-base interactions bring about novel functionality. Here, we review the interplay of naturally occurring noncanonical nucleic acids and artificial DNA nanostructures in biomedical applications that have not been possible by duplex formation alone.

In this review, we summarize the latest progress in the development of strategies to relieve tumor hypoxia for improved PDT efficacy, from the design of novel nonreactive oxygen carriers to reactive materials and other strategies, including the regulation of tumor microenvironments and PDT-involved multimodal therapy.

This review encompasses syntheses, characterizations, and applications of InP magic-sized clusters (MSCs) which are originally found as intermediates during the growth of InP quantum dots (QDs). Various tools to characterize MSCs and the intermediate characteristics of InP MSCs and InP MSCs having incorporated heterogeneous atoms such as chlorine or zinc are discussed. Developments in the syntheses of InP QDs and MSC-mediated growth mechanisms involving fragments, monomers or other nanoclusters are also addressed.

Schematic illustrations of various bodily fluids to detect human diseases such as diabetes, gout, and Parkinson’s disease through the use of wearable electrochemical biosensors

This review introduce the structure and properties of electrospun nanofiber materials and the various strategies for assembling soft electronic devices such as sensors, transistors, and components for energy harvesting and storage.

For the organic ferromagnetic materials, strong couplings have been observed among the charge, orbit, spin, and phonon. Therefore, the recent progress of organic magnetoelectric and optomagnetic coupling effects are briefly summarized in this review paper. Magnetoelectric coupling and opto-magnetic coupling materials have great potential applications in low-power multifunctional multiferroic magnetoelectric memory and all magneto-optical recording, respectively. However, the mechanism of the origin of the couplings is still only partly understood. Thus, further studying on the organic magnetoelectric and opto-magnetic couplings could promote the understanding on the mechanism and their potential industrial applications.

Despite the hopeful signs of progress of COVID-19 vaccine development and vaccination, the highly infectious nature and mutations of SARS-CoV-2 are warnings of an infighting annual revival of the virus. This article clarifies the complexities of COVID-19 by referring to the molecular-level mechanisms of the infection, immune response, replication, and transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which are essential during the development of an effective vaccine or a drug to fight the pandemic. Furthermore, this article underscores the significance of an interface among chemistry, nanoscience, cell biology, immunology, and virology to resolve the challenges of COVID-19.

In this review, recent developments of carbon nanomaterial-based SERS biosensors are systematically summarized, which focus on fundamental principles for carbon-based materials for SERS biosensor design, fabrication methods and operation mechanisms, providing insight into their rapidly growing future potential in the fields of biomedical and biological engineering, in-situ analysis, quantitative analysis and flexible photoelectric functional materials.