Applications of Raman and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy in medicine

AbstractThe first part of this review is devoted to medical applications of Raman spectroscopy as a diagnostic or analytical tool. Studies of human arteries, ocular lenses, living cells and chromosomes are reviewed, in addition to recent advantages in cancer diagnostics using Raman spectroscopy. The second and major part is devoted to a relatively new field, surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy of biomedical species. The SERS effect is accompanied by strong quenching of fluorescence and so enabes the range of species that can be investigated by Raman technique to be extended. The ultra‐high sensitivity of SERS enables spectra to be obtained at concentrations down to 10−10 M. A wide range of experiments designed to probe the structure, topology and composition of biomedical species using SERS spectroscopy can be envisioned. Some of these currently being studied are: the determination of the distribution of drugs within a living cell and on the cellular membrane, the selective study of cell membrane components, the analysis of crude biomedical mixtures and extracts and new techniques, based on SERS spectroscopy, Fourier transform SERS spectroscopy and the SERS microprobe method.