近年来太赫兹光(0.1 THz～10 THz)因其良好的探测能力和非电离特性受到研究者们的关注。根据不同的检测方式和信号处理方法，可分为太赫兹成像技术和太赫兹光谱技术两大类。太赫兹技术在医学科学中发展迅速，其中生物大分子检测和组织成像令人印象深刻。水含量和结构差异是太赫兹成像技术的理论基础，据此可对生物组织进行检测识别。不同的生物组织具有不同的太赫兹特征谱，太赫兹光谱技术通过检测吸收系数、折射系数和反射系数来识别不同的生物分子、细胞或组织。实时、无标记的检测方式有望在临床实践中发挥重要作用，但仍需克服生物安全性不明等困难。综述介绍了太赫兹技术在医学科学中的应用及研究进展，同时探讨了太赫兹技术目前需要克服的难题和潜在的生物安全性问题。

Terahertz radiation (0.1 THz~10 THz) has attracted extensive attention of researchers recently, because of its prominent detecting ability and its noninvasive and non-ionization properties. Terahertz technologies can be categorized into terahertz imaging and terahertz spectroscopy according to the manner of detection and signal processing. With the rapid development of terahertz technology, detection of macromolecule and imaging of tissues have achieved impressive progresses. Differences of water content and variations of structure or component are essential mechanisms of terahertz biomedical imaging, which was used in identifying different biomedical tissues. Terahertz spectroscopy is an edge technology for recognizing biomolecules, cells and tissues, based on their individual terahertz spectral fingerprints by assessing their absorbance, reflective and refractive index. Based on its properties, terahertz technology has great potential ability for clinical application, especially for real-time and label- free identification. However, this technology needs to overcome several difficulties, like biological safety. In this review, we introduce the applications of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy in medical science and medical research progress, and also discuss the difficulties of terahertz technology and potential biological safety.