Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of plasmonic nanomaterials for applications in biology and medicine generating a new field, the so-called bioplasmonics. At present, plasmonic nanoparticles can be found in many applications serving as therapeutics, diagnostic or theranostic agents. The rapid advancement of bioplasmonics has gone hand in hand with the multiplication of the synthetic methods to produce finely-tailored plasmonic nanomaterials and the development of their surface functionalization tools, which is key to provide them with colloidal stability and/or specificity in complex biological media. This review aims to highlight basic physicochemical properties in the bioplasmonics context, as well as the most important bioapplications based on the properties of plasmonic colloids. Pioneering works that stimulated the rise of the bioplasmonics field, as well as most recent advances and future directions are discussed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.