Recent years have seen the development of spintronic devices and their applications in biomedical areas. Spintronic devices rely on detecting or manipulating a magnetic field, a field to which biological matter is relatively transparent. The recent use of spintronic devices in biomedical areas has included diagnosing diseases such as cancer and cirrhosis, genotyping DNA, point-of-care devices, and flexible electronics. Up to date, most of the spintronic devices in biomedical applications fall into three mainstream types: anisotropic, giant, and tunneling magnetoresistance devices. Each of these has its advantages and drawbacks, which this review explores and discusses. The advent of spintronics gives us a new low-power, low-cost, ease-of-manufacture alternative to standard CMOS sensors. The sensitivity of spintronic biosensors has been progressing steadily, expected to increase tremendously in the next few years.

Since its first report in 2006, magnetic particle spectroscopy (MPS)-based biosensors have flourished over the past decade. Currently, MPS are used for a wide range of applications, such as disease diagnosis, foodborne pathogen detection, etc. In this work, different MPS platforms, such as dual-frequency and mono-frequency driving field designs, were reviewed. MPS combined with multi-functional magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have been extensively reported as a versatile platform for the detection of a long list of biomarkers. The surface-functionalized MNPs serve as nanoprobes that specifically bind and label target analytes from liquid samples. Herein, an analysis of the theories and mechanisms that underlie different MPS platforms, which enable the implementation of bioassays based on either volume or surface, was carried out. Furthermore, this review draws attention to some significant MPS platform applications in the biomedical and biological fields. In recent years, different kinds of MPS point-of-care (POC) devices have been reported independently by several groups in the world. Due to the high detection sensitivity, simple assay procedures and low cost per run, the MPS POC devices are expected to become more widespread in the future. In addition, the growth of telemedicine and remote monitoring has created a greater demand for POC devices, as patients are able to receive health assessments and obtain results from the comfort of their own homes. At the end of this review, we comment on the opportunities and challenges for POC devices as well as MPS devices regarding the intensely growing demand for rapid, affordable, high-sensitivity and user-friendly devices.