Due to the excellent biocompatibility of gold nanoparticles with human organism, they have great potentials for controlled drug delivery, cancer detection, cancer therapy, cancer management, and biomedical imaging. The unique optical and physiochemical properties of gold nanoparticles have made them a great candidate for intracellular diagnosis using surface-enhanced Raman microscopy and hyperspectral microscopy. These two techniques offer sensitive and non-invasive measurements. Gold nanoparticles also can be utilized to modulate the mechanobiological properties of cells, providing a platform to suppress the metastatic level of cells. (c) The Author(s) 2018. Published by ECS.