Early life-science applications of photonics centered mostly on the therapeutic use of lasers for general surgery and ophthalmology. But as the field of photonics has broadened and evolved, so too has the landscape for this technology in the “bio” arena. In recent years, high-profile lab-based applications such as DNA sequencing and proteomics have tended to overshadow a less prominent but equally important revolution in disease diagnostics.
In fact, medical diagnostics is filled with significant growth opportunities for photonics. Advances in spectroscopy and imaging techniques, for instance, are changing the way diseases will be detected and medicine practiced. Near-IR spectroscopy is being applied to areas ranging from burn diagnostics to dental imaging (see page 115). Raman spectroscopy is benefiting from novel approaches that overcome some of its limitations, such as extending the path length for biological samples, and spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/289272 and page 123, respectively).
And the adaptive scanning optical microscope featured in last month’s issue (see www.laserfocusworld.com/articles/289405), which can image live cells, has just won the 2007 PhAST/Laser Focus World Innovation Award-to be presented during the plenary session at this month’s Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in Baltimore, MD. Congratulations to Thorlabs (Newton, NJ)!
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