Nanodiagnostics as a field makes use of fundamental advances in nanobiotechnology to diagnose, characterize and manage disease at the molecular scale. As these strategies move closer to routine clinical use, a proper understanding of different imaging modalities, relevant biological systems and physical properties governing nanoscale interactions is necessary to rationally engineer next-generation bionanomaterials. In this Review, we analyse the background physics of several clinically relevant imaging modalities and their associated sensitivity and specificity, provide an overview of the materials currently used for in vivo nanodiagnostics, and assess the progress made towards clinical translation. This work provides a framework for understanding both the impressive progress made thus far in the nanodiagnostics field as well as presenting challenges that must be overcome to obtain widespread clinical adoption.

纳米诊断作为一个领域，利用纳米生物技术的基本进步在分子尺度上诊断、表征和管理疾病。随着这些策略越来越接近常规临床应用，正确理解不同的成像模式、相关生物系统和控制纳米级相互作用的物理特性对于合理设计下一代生物纳米材料是必要的。在这篇综述中，我们分析了几种临床相关成像方式的背景物理及其相关的敏感性和特异性，概述了目前用于体内纳米诊断的材料，并评估了临床转化方面取得的进展。这项工作提供了一个框架，用于了解纳米诊断领域迄今为止取得的令人印象深刻的进展，以及提出为获得广泛的临床应用必须克服的挑战。