A particularly alarming issue in world health today is the rise and prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which significantly increases death rates and costs of treatment; and a group of pathogens responsible for the majority of hospital acquired infections. On 27 February 2017, WHO published list of bacteria for which new antibiotics are urgently needed. Although the Gram-positive bacteria in the ESKAPE group, including the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, have rightly drawn attention over the past decade, infections caused by the Gram-negative microbes have recently been recognized as a more critical healthcare issue. One the other hand, detecting bacteria and other pathogenic species as well as bio-analytes like anti-oxidants, glucose, etc. is also vital.

Sensitive and selective target capture, recognition, and signal transduction in detection of chemical and biological molecules is essential for fundamental biomedical studies, disease diagnosis, and drug screening. To achieve fast, sensitive, large-scale, and low-cost molecular analysis, a wide variety of detection technologies such as fluorescent, spectroscopic, electrical, magnetic and mechanical methods have been developed.

Generally, there are three layers of complexity that are interconnected and need to be considered carefully in the development of nanomaterials for use in biomedical applications: material characteristics; interactions with biological components and biological activity outcomes. To understand and follow antibacterial and/or sensing mechanisms of nanomaterials, it is critical to know how their properties are determinant in their final performances.

To know more about fundamentals and details of the subject, some useful review papers are published like:

1- Hegab et al. The controversial antibacterial activity of graphene-based materials. Carbon, 2016.

2- Shi et al. The Antibacterial Applications of Graphene and Its Derivatives, Small, 2016.

3- Zhou et al. Applications of two-dimensional layered nanomaterials in photoelectrochemical sensors: A comprehensive review, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, 2022.

4- Tang et al. Solar-Energy-Driven Photoelectrochemical Biosensing Using TiO2 Nanowires, Chemistry, A European Journal, 2015.

5- Bai et al. Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials for Sensor Applications, Chemical Reviews, 2014.