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Carbon quantum dots (CDs) are a relatively new class of carbon nanomaterials which have been studied very much in the last fifteen years to improve their already favorable properties.

Early diagnosis of diseases is of great importance because it increases the chance of a cure and significantly reduces treatment costs. Thus, development of rapid, sensitive, and reliable biosensing techniques is essential for the benefits of human life and health. As such, various nanomaterials have been explored to improve performance of biosensors, among which, carbon dots (CDs) have received enormous attention due to their excellent performance. In this Review, the recent advancements of CDbased biosensors have been carefully summarized. First, biosensors are classified according to their sensing strategies, and the role of CDs in these sensors is elaborated in detail. Next, several typical CD-based biosensors (including CD-only, enzymatic, antigen− antibody, and nucleic acid biosensors) and their applications are fully discussed. Last, advantages, challenges, and perspectives on the future trends of CD-based biosensors are highlighted.

Most of the dual nano drug delivery systems fail to enter malignant brain tumors due to a lack of proper targeting systems and the size increase of the nanoparticles after drug conjugation. Therefore, a triple conjugated system was developed with carbon dots (C-dots) which has an average particle size of 1.5–1.7 nm.

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Bone tissue engineering (BTE) has received significant attention due to its enormous potential in treating critical‐sized bone defects and related diseases. Traditional materials such as metals, ceramics, and polymers have been widely applied as BTE scaffolds; however, their clinical applications have been rather limited due to various considerations. Recently, carbon‐based nanomaterials attract significant interests for their applications as BTE scaffolds due to their superior properties, including excellent mechanical strength, large surface area, tunable surface functionalities, high biocompatibility as well as abundant and inexpensive nature. In this article, recent studies and advancements on the use of carbon‐based nanomaterials with different dimensions such as graphene and its derivatives, carbon nanotubes, and carbon dots, for BTE are reviewed. Current challenges of carbon‐based nanomaterials for BTE and future trends in BTE scaffolds development are also highlighted and discussed.

Carbon dots (CDs) have been widely studied since their discovery in 2004 as a green substitute of the traditional quantum dots due to their excellent photoluminescence (PL) and high biocompatibility. Meanwhile, polymers have increasingly become an important component for both synthesis and modification of CDs to provide polymeric matrix and enhance their PL property. Furthermore, critical analysis of composites of CDs and polymers has not been available. Herein, in this review, we summarized the use of polymers in the synthesis and functionalization of CDs, and the applications of these CDs in various fields.

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide, and one of the deadliest after lung cancer. Currently, standard methods for cancer therapy including BC are surgery followed by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. However, both chemotherapy and radiotherapy often fail to treat BC due to the side effects that these therapies incur in normal tissues and organs. In recent years, various nanoparticles (NPs) have been discovered and synthesized to be able to selectively target tumor cells without causing any harm to the healthy cells or organs. Therefore, NPs-mediated targeted drug delivery systems (DDS) have become a promising technique to treat BC. In addition to their selectivity to target tumor cells and reduce side effects, NPs have other unique properties which make them desirable for cancer treatment such as low toxicity, good compatibility, ease of preparation, high photoluminescence (PL) for bioimaging in vivo, and high loadability of drugs due to their tunable surface functionalities. In this study, we summarize with a critical analysis of the most recent therapeutic studies involving various NPs-mediated DDS as alternatives for the traditional treatment approaches for BC. It will shed light on the significance of NPs-mediated DDS and serve as a guide to seeking for the ideal methodology for future targeted drug delivery for an efficient BC treatment.