Solid-state nanopore and nanochannel platforms for biomarker detection in disease diagnosis: recent advances and perspectives.

Solid-state nanopore and nanochannel platforms are versatile label-free biosensors that convert biomolecular transport or binding into ionic current signals. This review organizes recent disease-diagnostic applications around a central design chain. Biomarker properties, including size, charge, conformation, abundance, and sample-matrix context, determine whether direct measurement, a molecular-recognition interface, signal amplification, or structural signal translation is required. The selected configuration then shapes the resulting signal characteristics and influences key analytical and translational parameters, including sensitivity, selectivity, dynamic range, throughput, and clinical applicability. Representative advances for protein, nucleic acid, and pathogen biomarkers in cancer, neurological disease, endocrine dysfunction, and communicable disease are critically assessed, including antibody/nanobody and aptamer interfaces, DNA nanostructures, nucleic acid amplification, electro-optical readouts, and machine-learning-assisted analysis. We further identify recurring trade-offs among analytical performance, assay time, matrix tolerance, quantitative robustness, and operational simplicity. Finally, challenges in biofouling, device reproducibility, throughput, standardization, and clinical validation are discussed together with opportunities in integrated materials, data-driven analysis, and portable systems. This framework provides practical design principles for next-generation nanopore and nanochannel diagnostic platforms.