The paper can impact many researchers in the fields of chemistry, biology, materials science, and medicine.

Yes. It shows how one can use nanoparticle probes for doing massively multiplexed detection of DNA targets.

It provides a fast, ultrasensitive, and selective method for detecting DNA markers from pathogenic agents. The SERS/nanoparticle approach offers high sensitivity and selectivity, signal ratioing capabilities, extensive multiplexing capabilities, and single source excitation.

For the past decade, we have been studying the intrinsic properties of nanoparticles and evaluating how they can be used in diagnostic systems that provide advantages over conventional biodetection methods. This is a culmination of that effort, and, taken together, these advances point towards methods that are superior, in many cases, to traditional ones based upon molecular-fluorophore probes. It is changing the field of molecular diagnostics.