Mesoporous silica nanoparticles have attracted great attention because of their potential applications as catalysts, drug/gene delivery carriers, and optical materials because of high surface area, large pore volume, transparency, biocompatibility, and high cell uptake efficiency. This review reports general preparation and applications of mesoporous silica nanoparticles, and our recent efforts on the preparation of well-dispersed mesoporous silica nanoparticles with precisely controlled particle size, pore size, functionality, and morphology.