Nanotechnology and specifically nanophotonics have been at the forefront of biosensor development because they promise the integration of bulky analytical equipment into ultrasmall footprints. This size reduction makes nanophotonic approaches ideal for transitioning traditional sensing and spectroscopy concepts towards the point-of-care, enabling the delivery of rapid diagnostic results, and contributing to improved patient outcomes. In my talk, I will introduce several examples of such nanophotonics-based sensors and highlight how they can provide conceptual advances and improved performance for biomedical detection, covering a wide range of applications from lipid membrane and vesicular processes to the identification of antibodies and biomarkers for disease.