Persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) are an emerging group of promising luminescent materials that can remain luminescent after the excitation ceases. In the past decade, PLNPs with intriguing optical properties have been developed and their applications in biomedicine have been widely studied. Due to the ultra-long decay time of persistent luminescence, autofluorescence interference in biosensing and bioimaging can be efficiently eliminated. Moreover, PLNPs can remain luminescent for hours, making them valuable in bio-tracing. Also, persistent luminescence imaging can guide cancer therapy with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and superior sensitivity. Briefly, PLNPs are demonstrated to be a newly-emerging class of functional materials with unprecedented advantages in biomedicine. In this review, we summarized recent advances in the preparation of PLNPs and the applications of PLNPs in biosensing, bioimaging and cancer therapy.

Sepsis and bacteremia are life-threatening clinical syndromes associated with significant patient morbidity and mortality. Rapid and sensitive detection of pathogenic bacteria is the key to improve patient survival rates. Herein, we have rationally constructed a simple aptamer-based capture platform to shorten the time needed for confirmation of bacterial bloodstream infection in clinical blood samples. This capture platform is made of a mesoporous TiO2-coated magnetic nanoparticle and is modified with target aptamer. It features excellent bacterial enrichment efficiency of about 80% even at low bacterial concentrations (10-2000 CFU mL(-1)). More importantly, the bacteria can be enriched within 2 h, and the time for bacterial identification is effectively shortened in comparison to the "gold standard" in clinical diagnosis of bloodstream infection. The aptamer-based capture platform may pave a way for the detection of biomarkers and find potential applications in disease diagnosis.

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Persistent nanophosphors can remain luminescent after excitation ceases; thus, they offer a promising way to avoid background fluorescence interference in bioimaging. In this work, ZnGeO:Ga,Mn (ZGO:Ga,Mn) persistent luminescence nanoparticles were developed and they were employed for time-gated imaging of latent fingerprints (LFP). The nanoparticles were functionalized with a carboxyl group and utilized to label LFP through reacting with the amino group in the LFP. Results proved the potent ability of ZGO:Ga,Mn in eliminating background fluorescence to afford highly sensitive LFP imaging. Moreover, LFP aged for 60 days were successfully detected due to the presence of highly stable amino acids. After being functionalized with concanavalin A, the nanoparticles achieved visualization of glycoproteins in LFP. This strategy provides great versatility in LFP imaging and good potential in uncovering the chemical information within LFP, making it valuable in forensic investigations and medical diagnostics.

Re-engineering cellular components and biological processes has received great interest and promised compelling advantages in applications ranging from basic cell biology to biomedicine. With the advent of DNA nanotechnology, the programmable self-assembly ability makes DNA an appealing candidate for rational design of artificial components with different structures and functions. This Forum Article summarizes recent developments of DNA nanotechnology in mimicking the structures and functions of existing cellular components. We highlight key successes in the achievements of DNA-based biomimetic membrane proteins and discuss the assembly behavior of these artificial proteins. Then, we focus on the construction of higher-order structures by DNA nanotechnology to recreate cell-like structures. Finally, we explore the current challenges and speculate on future directions of DNA nanotechnology in biomimetics.

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Two‐dimensional (2D) nanoflakes represent an appealing class of materials for optoelectronics applications due to their unique layered structures and excellent electronic properties. However, the lack of easy‐to‐manipulate and effective methods for large‐scale production of these 2D materials limits their potential for applications. Also, few efforts have been made to explore their applications in biological fields. This work reports the preparation of large quantities of 2D In2Se3 nanosheets through a solvent exfoliation technique. Transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy results show that the In2Se3 nanosheets are obtained with lateral sizes of tens of nanometers to hundreds of nanometers and thickness of 2–17 layers. Raman features coupled with the X‐ray diffractometry results unequivocally confirm the as‐prepared In2Se3 nanosheets to be α phase. Moreover, these α‐In2Se3 nanosheets exhibit an excellent near‐infrared (NIR) photothermal performance under an 808 nm laser irradiation. NIR photo‐excitation of the α‐In2Se3 nanosheets in the presence of bacteria leads to a significant antibacterial effect, suggesting that these nanosheets have great potential to be photothermal antibacterial agents. Our work on α‐In2Se3 nanosheets presents an available method for exfoliating 2D layered materials, and highlights the potential application in chemical and biological fields of α‐In2Se3 nanosheets.

For the water remediation techniques based on adsorption, the long‐standing contradictories between selectivity and multiple adsorbability, as well as between affinity and recyclability, have put it on weak defense amid more and more severe environment crisis. Here, a pollutant‐targeting hydrogel scavenger is reported for water remediation with both high selectivity and multiple adsorbability for several pollutants, and with strong affinity and good recyclability through rationally integrating the advantages of multiple functional materials. In the scavenger, aptamers fold into binding pockets to accommodate the molecular structure of pollutants to afford perfect selectivity, and Janus nanoparticles with antibacterial function as well as anisotropic surfaces to immobilize multiple aptamers allow for simultaneously handling different kinds of pollutants. The scavenger exhibits high efficiencies in removing pollutants from water and it can be easily recycled for many times without significant loss of loading capacities. Moreover, the residual concentrations of each contaminant are well below the drinking water standards. Thermodynamic behavior of the adsorption process is investigated and the rate‐controlling process is determined. Furthermore, a point of use device is constructed and it displays high efficiency in removing pollutants from environmental water. The scavenger exhibits great promise to be applied in the next generation of water purification systems.