About this Research Topic
With the advancement of optics, lasers, detectors and photonics devices and their applications in the field of biology and medicine, a new era of biophotonics has emerged. This field at present is a very hot area of research worldwide because of the prospects in the field and the potentiality of the photonics research in solving complex biomedical and clinical problems. The use of lasers has attracted much attention, not only as a light source for spectroscopic and microscopic imaging but also as a tool to induce biochemical changes in cells and also to exploit the properties of unique molecular structure and orientation, vibrational transition, and auto-fluorescence upon suitable excitation of the natural emitters in living systems. Nonlinear optical imaging techniques have widely been used in microscopy, employing ultra-fast pulsed lasers for obtaining both high contrast as well as high optical resolution, although usually only sub-millimeter depths within the sample can be imaged.
Label free optical techniques are popular due to the high optical contrast without any external marker. In the case of nonlinear optical techniques, there is no net energy deposition left in the sample, ensuring label-free, noninvasive and nondestructive detection, which is essential for long-term investigation on live cells and tissues. With the help of two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) imaging, one can image a variety of endogenous fluorophores such as reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), tryptophan, collagen, elastin, keratins, melanin etc., not only in cells, but also in the extracellular matrix. Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy revealed microstructures using the critical polarization parameters. The ability to quantify cellular metabolic rate and collagen conformation noninvasively in healthy and disease states is therefore an important requirement for basic research, drug development and clinical diagnosis. Various types of Raman scattering techniques provide chemical contrast due to the Raman vibrational fingerprint. Polarization measurement integrated to these techniques provides unparalleled contrast to biomolecules. Also, improvements of label-free multimodal technology such as photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography (OCT) bring about unprecedented opportunities in diverse fields of research including nanotechnology, material science, developmental biology, molecular biology, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.
The scope of the Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:
• Label free optical microscopy
• Harmonic generation microscopy
• Polarization microscopy
• Stokes-Mueller methods in optical microscopy
• Optical coherence tomography
• Photoacoustic microscopy
• Coherent Raman scattering microscopy
• Two-photon fluorescence microscopy
• Super-resolution microscopy
Accepted manuscript types include Original Research, Methods, Protocols, Mini-Reviews, Reviews and Perspective articles.
Label free optical techniques are popular due to the high optical contrast without any external marker. In the case of nonlinear optical techniques, there is no net energy deposition left in the sample, ensuring label-free, noninvasive and nondestructive detection, which is essential for long-term investigation on live cells and tissues. With the help of two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) imaging, one can image a variety of endogenous fluorophores such as reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), tryptophan, collagen, elastin, keratins, melanin etc., not only in cells, but also in the extracellular matrix. Second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy revealed microstructures using the critical polarization parameters. The ability to quantify cellular metabolic rate and collagen conformation noninvasively in healthy and disease states is therefore an important requirement for basic research, drug development and clinical diagnosis. Various types of Raman scattering techniques provide chemical contrast due to the Raman vibrational fingerprint. Polarization measurement integrated to these techniques provides unparalleled contrast to biomolecules. Also, improvements of label-free multimodal technology such as photoacoustic and optical coherence tomography (OCT) bring about unprecedented opportunities in diverse fields of research including nanotechnology, material science, developmental biology, molecular biology, drug delivery, and tissue engineering.
The scope of the Research Topic includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:
• Label free optical microscopy
• Harmonic generation microscopy
• Polarization microscopy
• Stokes-Mueller methods in optical microscopy
• Optical coherence tomography
• Photoacoustic microscopy
• Coherent Raman scattering microscopy
• Two-photon fluorescence microscopy
• Super-resolution microscopy
Accepted manuscript types include Original Research, Methods, Protocols, Mini-Reviews, Reviews and Perspective articles.
Keywords: polarization, label-free imaging, optical microscopy, nonlinear optics, spectroscopy
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