Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy for Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, we have seen tremendous progress within the biospectroscopy field with main applications in clinical chemistry (disease pattern recognition, non-invasive assays, or the screening of neurodegenerative diseases), medical diagnostics (in particular, cancer vs. healthy), or the characterization of biomaterials (e.g., cartilage or bone composition). There are many instrumental developments with regard to, especially, fiber lasers and quantum cascade lasers as tuneable radiation sources, with spectrometer improvements for bed-side patient monitoring and instruments for microscopy and imaging. Non-linear Raman techniques have been developed for even faster imaging methods and in-situ applications. In this context, multimodal spectroscopic measurements also complement the diagnostic tool box. Spectral histo- and cytopathology has been advanced to have results from these methods for intraoperative decisions ready. Spectral data handling for tissue classification is facing an enormous amount of data, which requires efficient algorithms, chemometric methods, and high computer power with appropriate data storage. Fiber-optic probes in combination with endoscopic Raman spectroscopy or mid-infrared fibers for optical probes have been used for special tissue characterization. Further progress has been made concerning higher spatial resolution based on near-field microscopy or other competing techniques for getting more insights into intra-cellular domains and the accumulation of active drug molecules for cancer treatment.

This Special Issue, “Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy for Biomedical Applications”, aims to collect and publish recent advances in this interdisciplinary area. Research articles as well as reviews dealing with innovative measurement techniques, instrumentation development, and novel applications of all parts of vibrational spectroscopy are invited. Applications may refer to the analysis of biofluid or tissue biopsy samples, cellular and subcellular investigations, or integral tissue characterization. This does not exclude gaseous samples such as those used for breath analysis based on novel instrumentation. Manuscripts on this plethora of instrumental developments and wide area applications contributing to the advancement of biospectroscopy are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Herbert Michael Heise
Prof. Dr. Gerald Steiner
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Infrared, near-infrared, Raman, non-linear Raman, THz-spectroscopy
• Clinical chemistry (quantitative assays of substrates, metabolites, etc., invasive and non-invasive techniques)
• Clinical chemistry for disease pattern recognition or disease screening
• Spectral histo- and cytopathology
• Biomaterial characterization
• Novel instrumental developments
• Imaging based on FTIR and EC-QCL-based spectrometers
• Imaging based on linear and non-linear Raman techniques
• Multimodal biospectroscopies for spectral histopathology
• Fiber-optic developments
• SERS and SEIRA applications for clinical chemistry and medical diagnostics.