Biomedical Photonics Advances

A special issue of Photonics (ISSN 2304-6732).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 May 2019) | Viewed by 48460

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CUNY Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers, The City College of New York, New York, NY 10031, USA
Interests: ultrafast laser physics; biomedical optics; nonlinear optics; optical imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego (UCSD), 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
Interests: novel optical techniques; brain; cancer; metabolic imaging
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As an efficient imaging and diagnostic tool, the salient properties of light, including the frequency, coherence, complex wave fronts, orbital and spin angular momentum and polarization, have had  high impacts in the fields of life science and medicine. In particular, how light is absorbed, scattered and emitted in tissues can reveal tissues’ healthy or diseased status. For example, cancer tissue emits and scatters light in a different way compared to normal healthy tissue. Recently we discovered four optical windows, at NIR (650 nm to 950 nm) and short wavelength radiation (1100 nm to 1350 nm), (1600 nm to 1870 nm), and (2100 nm to 2300 nm), which display great potential for deep tissue imaging and low-light-level therapy, such as wound healing.

Combing different types of laser sources, such as supercontinuum, laser diodes, and LED that span the NIR and SWIR ranges with photodetector beyond the silicon limit of 1000 nm, such as InGaAs, InSb and others from 900 to 2500 nm detection range, the state-of-art cutting edge advances in light offer a panoply of imaging techniques for deeper tissue imaging with linear and nonlinear optical methods. Selective wavelengths or molecules for resonance effects from electronic states and vibrational states offer significant reduction of the acquisition time to seconds and significant enhancement of Raman signals 100 to 1000 fold; an example is using a 532 nm light as the excitation source for Resonance Raman from molecule vibrations in biological tissues. In addition, studies of light pulse propagation in brain tissue with classical (radial polarized) and quantum (twin) entangled photons theories inspire the study of quasi particles in brain and other tissues.

Papers submitted to this Special Issue will cover, but are not limit to, topics related to the above, as well as topics listed below:

  • non- or minimum-invasive spectroscopy for brain function, neuro degeneration, neuro pathologies and cancer
  • non- or minimum-invasive functional spectroscopy for muscles and bones
  • non-invasive spectroscopy for breast and cervix cancer and pathologies
  • SRS imaging of brain and other tissues
  • RR imaging of skin, cervix, breast and arteries
  • photobiomodulation for wound healing and brain disorders
  • coherent imaging, such as OCT for various medical applications
  • spatial frequency to study structural changes in tissues
  • high resolution microscopy method to image toward the nm scale
  • ultraviolet advances in microscopy for pathology, and probing inside cell world for DNA and microtubules
  • quantum effects in brain
  • light propagation and transmission in brain neuron tree maze
  • classical and quantum entangled photons
  • classical and quantum entanglement in tissues and cell
  • quasi particles in tissue and brains

Prof. Robert R. Alfano
Dr. Lingyan Shi
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. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2400 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.

Keywords

  • optical Spectroscopy for life science
  • Raman and resonance Raman scattering
  • Fluorescence spectroscopy
  • Supercontinuum light source
  • LED and diode lasers
  • Optical NIR and SWIR windows
  • deep optical imaging
  • high resolution microscopy
  • classical and quantum entanglement photons
  • photobiomodulation
  • wound healing
  • Laser tissue bonding
  • mitochondria and microtubules in neurons
  • quantum brain
  • consciousness bell and person
  • brain mind entanglement
  • brain dipolar medium orchestra and quasi particles
  • Alzheimer’s disease
  • brain light stimulation

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (9 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Other

17 pages, 4373 KiB  
Article
Validation of an Inverse Fitting Method of Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy to Quantify Multi-Layered Skin Optical Properties
by Chiao-Yi Wang, Tzu-Chia Kao, Yin-Fu Chen, Wen-Wei Su, Hsin-Jou Shen and Kung-Bin Sung
Photonics 2019, 6(2), 61; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6020061 - 30 May 2019
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5076
Abstract
Skin consists of epidermis and dermis layers that have distinct optical properties. The quantification of skin optical properties is commonly achieved by modeling photon propagation in tissue using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and iteratively fitting experimentally measured diffuse reflectance spectra. In order to [...] Read more.
Skin consists of epidermis and dermis layers that have distinct optical properties. The quantification of skin optical properties is commonly achieved by modeling photon propagation in tissue using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations and iteratively fitting experimentally measured diffuse reflectance spectra. In order to speed up the inverse fitting process, time-consuming MC simulations have been replaced by artificial neural networks to quickly calculate reflectance spectra given tissue geometric and optical parameters. In this study the skin was modeled to consist of three layers and different scattering properties of the layers were considered. A new inverse fitting procedure was proposed to improve the extraction of chromophore-related information in the skin, including the hemoglobin concentration, oxygen saturation and melanin absorption. The performance of the new inverse fitting procedure was evaluated on 40 sets of simulated spectra. The results showed that the fitting procedure without knowing the epidermis thickness extracted chromophore information with accuracy similar to or better than fitting with known epidermis thickness, which is advantageous for practical applications due to simpler and more cost-effective instruments. In addition, the melanin volume fraction multiplied by the thickness of the melanin-containing epidermis layer was estimated more accurately than the melanin volume fraction itself. This product has the potential to provide a quantitative indicator of melanin absorption in the skin. In-vivo cuff occlusion experiments were conducted and skin optical properties extracted from the experiments were comparable to the results of previously reported in vivo studies. The results of the current study demonstrated the applicability of the proposed method to quantify the optical properties related to major chromophores in the skin, as well as scattering coefficients of the dermis. Therefore, it has the potential to be a useful tool for quantifying skin optical properties in vivo. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 8488 KiB  
Article
Propagation of Cylindrical Vector Laser Beams in Turbid Tissue-Like Scattering Media
by Alexander Doronin, Nicolás Vera, Juan P. Staforelli, Pablo Coelho and Igor Meglinski
Photonics 2019, 6(2), 56; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6020056 - 24 May 2019
Cited by 26 | Viewed by 5743
Abstract
We explore the propagation of the cylindrical vector beams (CVB) in turbid tissue-like scattering medium in comparison with the conventional Gaussian laser beam. The study of propagation of CVB and Gaussian laser beams in the medium is performed utilizing the unified electric field [...] Read more.
We explore the propagation of the cylindrical vector beams (CVB) in turbid tissue-like scattering medium in comparison with the conventional Gaussian laser beam. The study of propagation of CVB and Gaussian laser beams in the medium is performed utilizing the unified electric field Monte Carlo model. The implemented Monte Carlo model is a part of a generalized on-line computational tool and utilizes parallel computing, executed on the NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) supporting Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). Using extensive computational studies, we demonstrate that after propagation through the turbid tissue-like scattering medium, the degree of fringe contrast for CVB becomes at least twice higher in comparison to the conventional linearly polarized Gaussian beam. The results of simulations agree with the results of experimental studies. Both experimental and theoretical results suggest that there is a high potential of the application of CVB in the diagnosis of biological tissues. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

14 pages, 4366 KiB  
Article
Quantitative Analysis of 4 × 4 Mueller Matrix Transformation Parameters for Biomedical Imaging
by Wei Sheng, Weipeng Li, Ji Qi, Teng Liu, Honghui He, Yang Dong, Shaoxiong Liu, Jian Wu, Daniel S. Elson and Hui Ma
Photonics 2019, 6(1), 34; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6010034 - 26 Mar 2019
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4994
Abstract
Mueller matrix polarimetry is a potentially powerful technique for obtaining microstructural information of biomedical specimens. Thus, it has found increasing application in both backscattering imaging of bulk tissue samples and transmission microscopic imaging of thin tissue slices. Recently, we proposed a technique to [...] Read more.
Mueller matrix polarimetry is a potentially powerful technique for obtaining microstructural information of biomedical specimens. Thus, it has found increasing application in both backscattering imaging of bulk tissue samples and transmission microscopic imaging of thin tissue slices. Recently, we proposed a technique to transform the 4 × 4 Mueller matrix elements into a group of parameters, which have explicit associations with specific microstructural features of samples. In this paper, we thoroughly analyze the relationships between the Mueller matrix transformation parameters and the characteristic microstructures of tissues by using experimental phantoms and Monte Carlo simulations based on different tissue mimicking models. We also adopt quantitative evaluation indicators to compare the Mueller matrix transformation parameters with the Mueller matrix polar decomposition parameters. The preliminary imaging results of bulk porcine colon tissues and thin human pathological tissue slices demonstrate the potential of Mueller matrix transformation parameters as biomedical diagnostic indicators. Also, this study provides quantitative criteria for parameter selection in biomedical Mueller matrix imaging. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1602 KiB  
Article
Improving Diagnosis of Cervical Pre-Cancer: Combination of PCA and SVM Applied on Fluorescence Lifetime Images
by Gyana Ranjan Sahoo, Pankaj Singh, Kiran Pandey, Chayanika Kala and Asima Pradhan
Photonics 2018, 5(4), 57; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics5040057 - 10 Dec 2018
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3440
Abstract
We report a significant improvement in the diagnosis of cervical cancer through a combined application of principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) on the average fluorescence decay profile of Fluorescence Lifetime Images (FLI) of epithelial hyperplasia (EH) and CIN-I cervical [...] Read more.
We report a significant improvement in the diagnosis of cervical cancer through a combined application of principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM) on the average fluorescence decay profile of Fluorescence Lifetime Images (FLI) of epithelial hyperplasia (EH) and CIN-I cervical tissue samples, obtained ex-vivo. The fast and slow components of double exponential fitted fluorescence lifetimes were found to be higher for EH compared to the lifetimes of CIN-I samples. Application of PCA to the average time-resolved fluorescence decay profiles showed that the 2nd PC, in combination with 1st PC, enhanced the discrimination between EH and CIN-I tissues. Fluorescence lifetime and PC scores were then classified separately by using SVM support vector machine to identify the two. On applying SVM to a combination of fluorescence lifetime and PC scores, diagnostic capability improved significantly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 3822 KiB  
Article
3D Mueller-Matrix Diffusive Tomography of Polycrystalline Blood Films for Cancer Diagnosis
by Volodimir Ushenko, Anton Sdobnov, Anna Syvokorovskaya, Alexander Dubolazov, Oleh Vanchulyak, Alexander Ushenko, Yurii Ushenko, Mykhailo Gorsky, Maxim Sidor, Alexander Bykov and Igor Meglinski
Photonics 2018, 5(4), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics5040054 - 1 Dec 2018
Cited by 59 | Viewed by 4431
Abstract
The decomposition of the Mueller matrix of blood films has been carried out using differential matrices with polarized and depolarized parts. The use of a coherent reference wave is applied and the algorithm of digital holographic reconstruction of the field of complex amplitudes [...] Read more.
The decomposition of the Mueller matrix of blood films has been carried out using differential matrices with polarized and depolarized parts. The use of a coherent reference wave is applied and the algorithm of digital holographic reconstruction of the field of complex amplitudes is used. On this basis, the 3D Mueller-matrix diffuse tomography method—the reconstruction of distributions of fluctuations of linear and circular birefringence of depolarizing polycrystalline films of human blood is analytically justified and experimentally tested. The dynamics of the change in the magnitude of the statistical moments of the first-fourth order, which characterize layer-by-layer distributions of fluctuations in the phase anisotropy of the blood film, is examined and analyzed. The most sensitive parameters for prostate cancer are the statistical moments of the third and fourth orders, which characterize the asymmetry and kurtosis of fluctuations in the linear and circular birefringence of blood films. The excellent accuracy of differentiation obtained polycrystalline films of blood from healthy donors and patients with cancer patients was achieved. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

9 pages, 712 KiB  
Article
Spectroscopic Optical Coherence Tomography by Using Multiple Multipole Expansion
by Hon Luen Seck and Ying Zhang
Photonics 2018, 5(4), 44; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics5040044 - 30 Oct 2018
Viewed by 3273
Abstract
This paper presents a pre-processing method to remove multiple scattering artifacts in spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT) using time–frequency analysis approaches. The method uses a multiple multipole expansion approach to model the light fields in SOCT. It is shown that the multiple scattered [...] Read more.
This paper presents a pre-processing method to remove multiple scattering artifacts in spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT) using time–frequency analysis approaches. The method uses a multiple multipole expansion approach to model the light fields in SOCT. It is shown that the multiple scattered fields can be characterized by higher order terms of the multiple multipole expansion. Hence, the multiple scattering artifact can thus be eliminated by applying the time–frequency transform on the SOCT measurements characterized by the lower order terms. Simulation and experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed pre-processing method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

8 pages, 946 KiB  
Communication
Quantification of Cardiomyocyte Beating Frequency Using Fourier Transform Analysis
by Allison Reno, Andrew W. Hunter, Yang Li, Tong Ye and Ann C. Foley
Photonics 2018, 5(4), 39; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics5040039 - 19 Oct 2018
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5131
Abstract
Pacemaker cardiomyocytes of the sinoatrial node (SAN) beat more rapidly than cells of the working myocardium. Beating in SAN cells responds to β-adrenergic and cholinergic signaling by speeding up or slowing, respectively. Beat rate has traditionally been assessed using voltage or calcium sensitive [...] Read more.
Pacemaker cardiomyocytes of the sinoatrial node (SAN) beat more rapidly than cells of the working myocardium. Beating in SAN cells responds to β-adrenergic and cholinergic signaling by speeding up or slowing, respectively. Beat rate has traditionally been assessed using voltage or calcium sensitive dyes, however these may not reflect the true rate of beating because they sequester calcium. Finally, in vitro differentiated cardiomyocytes sometimes briefly pause during imaging giving inaccurate beat rates. We have developed a MATLAB automation to calculate cardiac beat rates directly from video clips based on changes in pixel density at the edges of beating areas. These data are normalized to minimize the effects of secondary movement and are converted to frequency data using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). We find that this gives accurate beat rates even when there are brief pauses in beating. This technique can be used to rapidly assess beating of cardiomyocytes in organoid culture. This technique could also be combined with field scanning techniques to automatically and accurately assess beating within a complex cardiac organoid. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 8148 KiB  
Article
Improved Magneto-Optic Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensors
by Conrad Rizal, Simone Pisana and Ivan Hrvoic
Photonics 2018, 5(3), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics5030015 - 22 Jun 2018
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 6604
Abstract
The magneto-optic (MO) characteristics and sensing performance of noble metal (Ag, Au, Cu) or transition metal (Fe, Ni, Co) single layers and Ag/Co or Au/Co bilayers have been studied and compared in both the standard plasmonic and MO plasmonic configurations at two different [...] Read more.
The magneto-optic (MO) characteristics and sensing performance of noble metal (Ag, Au, Cu) or transition metal (Fe, Ni, Co) single layers and Ag/Co or Au/Co bilayers have been studied and compared in both the standard plasmonic and MO plasmonic configurations at two different wavelengths (632.8 nm and 785 nm) and in two different sensing media (air and water). The sensing performance is found to be medium-specific and lower in biosensor-relevant water-based media. The sensitivities of MO-SPR sensors is found to be superior to SPR sensors in all cases. This enhancement in sensitivity means the detection limit of this class of transducers can be substantially improved by tuning Au/Co layer thickness, wavelength, and incident angle of optical radiation. The optimized bilayer showed an enhancement in sensitivity by over 30× in air and 9× in water as compared to the conventional Au SPR configuration. Notably, the best performance is 3× above that of MO-SPR sensors coupled to a photonic crystal previously reported in the literature and is found when the ferromagnetic layer is furthest from the sensing medium, as opposed to typical MO-SPR configurations. This proposed structure is attractive for next-generation biosensors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Other

Jump to: Research

9 pages, 1391 KiB  
Letter
A Robust Method for Adjustment of Laser Speckle Contrast Imaging during Transcranial Mouse Brain Visualization
by Vyacheslav Kalchenko, Anton Sdobnov, Igor Meglinski, Yuri Kuznetsov, Guillaume Molodij and Alon Harmelin
Photonics 2019, 6(3), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6030080 - 13 Jul 2019
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 8779
Abstract
Laser speckle imaging (LSI) is a well-known and useful approach for the non-invasive visualization of flows and microcirculation localized in turbid scattering media, including biological tissues (such as brain vasculature, skin capillaries etc.). Despite an extensive use of LSI for brain imaging, the [...] Read more.
Laser speckle imaging (LSI) is a well-known and useful approach for the non-invasive visualization of flows and microcirculation localized in turbid scattering media, including biological tissues (such as brain vasculature, skin capillaries etc.). Despite an extensive use of LSI for brain imaging, the LSI technique has several critical limitations. One of them is associated with inability to resolve a functionality of vessels. This limitation also leads to the systematic error in the quantitative interpretation of values of speckle contrast obtained for different vessel types, such as sagittal sinus, arteries, and veins. Here, utilizing a combined use of LSI and fluorescent intravital microscopy (FIM), we present a simple and robust method to overcome the limitations mentioned above for the LSI approach. The proposed technique provides more relevant, abundant, and valuable information regarding perfusion rate ration between different types of vessels that makes this method highly useful for in vivo brain surgical operations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomedical Photonics Advances)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop