Biophotonics_Concepts_to_Applications

1.2 Diverse Applications

Among the disciplines that use biophotonics tools and techniques are biomedical
research, clinical procedures, dentistry, drug development, healthcare, environ-
mental monitoring, food safety, and manufacturing process control, as Fig.1.4
illustrates [ 2 , 13 – 24 ].

• Biomedical research: Biophotonics tools and techniques are being used to
  understand the basic functions of cells and molecules in life sciences, to dis-
  cover the genesis of diseases in order to devise processes for their early
  detection, to develop targeted therapies and minimally invasive treatments, and
  to monitor health conditions for the prevention or control of diseases.


• Clinical procedures: Almost every medical specialty makes use of some aspect
  of biophotonics tools and techniques. Table1.3lists some examples from a
  range of clinical procedures. In many of these disciplines the use of miniaturized
  optical components together with fast photonics devices have made dramatic
  improvements in response times and measurement accuracies.


• Dentistry: The biophotonics concepts of laser-tissue interactions are having
  widespread uses in dentistry for precisely focusing lasers at specific points in
  hard dental enamel and bone without damaging the surrounding tissue to
  remove infected tissue and to prepare teeth forfillings or crowns. Other laser
  applications in dentistry include gum surgery, root canal sterilization, treatment
  of oral cavity ulcers, and whitening of teeth.


• Drug development: Processes such asflow cytometry,fluorescence detection
  methods tofind out whether biological reactions are taking place in drug can-
  didates, the use of photo-switchable inhibitory peptides that can be used to
  manipulate protein-protein interactions inside cells by applying light, and sur-
  face plasmon resonance techniques for rapidly assessing biological reactions in

Biomedical

research

Clinical

procedures

Biophotonics

tools and

techniques

POC tests

and analyses

Environmental

monitoring

Manufacturing

processes

controls

Drug

development

Food safety

Dentistry

Fig. 1.4 Applications of biophotonics tools and techniques

6 1 Overview of Biophotonics