Biophotonics_Concepts_to_Applications

biological tissues and to carry out tissue modifications and therapy. The purpose of
this chapter is to give an overview of this rapidly growing multidisciplinaryfield
and to note its dramatically increasing uses, which are addressed in the following
chapters.
In this chapter,first Sect.1.1describes what biophotonics is and what its benefits
are. Next Sect.1.2gives an overview of the areas where biophotonics is used. Of
particular interest in this book are biophotonics implementations in biomedical
research and clinical practices. Among the numerous diverse applications are var-
ious biomedical imaging techniques, microscopic and spectroscopic procedures,
endoscopy, tissue pathology, bloodflow monitoring, light therapy, biosensing, laser
surgery, dentistry, and health status monitoring.
Then Sect.1.3gives some basic concepts of light and of light-tissue interactions.
This section also describes the fundamental background as to why specific light-
wave windows are needed to carry out most biophotonics processes. The
light-tissue interaction topic is expanded on in Chap. 6. Finally, Sect.1.4gives a
brief tutorial of biological cell and molecular structures, cellular and molecular
functions, and the vocabulary used to describe these structures and functions. This
topic is essential to understanding the biophotonics tools and light-tissue interaction
processes described in this book.

1.1 What Is Biophotonics?

Biophotonicsis a multidisciplinaryfield that deals with all aspects of the interac-
tions between light and biological material [ 1 – 12 ]. As Fig.1.2illustrates, bio-
photonics draws from the resources of many technicalfields, including biology,
biotechnology, chemistry, physics, various engineeringfields, and basically every
medical discipline. From a global viewpoint, biophotonics refers to the detection,
reflection, emission, modification, absorption, creation, and manipulation of

Biological tissue

Incident light

Reflection

Fluorescence

Scattering

Tissue modifications/therapy

Reflection

Absorption

Fig. 1.1 Biophotonics involves all aspects of light-tissue interactions

2 1 Overview of Biophotonics