Modern advances of photonic technologies and their application in biomedical research and clinical practice have raised immense interest in the scientific community. It is only recently that the Nobel Prize was awarded for the invention of Nanoscopy and breaking one of the fundamental laws of optics. We are now able to observe and quantify biology with resolutions down to the nanometer scale. At the same time the field of in vivo molecular imaging is being widely recognized as one of the most influential for translational research, transforming health care and personalized approaches for diagnosis and therapy. In that respect, current tools in biophotonics have offered a new avenue for exploration of biological function, detection and treatment of disease in living organisms and systems.
Methods that provide three dimensional microscopic images such as Optical Projection Tomography (OPT)1 and Light Sheet Fluorescence Microcopy (LSFM) or Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM)2 have found their way into biology labs due to their advantages compared to traditional methods such as confocal microscopy in imaging larger samples. On the other hand, recent advances in optoacoustic imaging have allowed to image in so far non-accessible regimes with unprecedented resolutions, based on the use of light for the illumination and production of ultrasonic waves. These developments have provided the means for performing high resolution, quantitative, volumetric and dynamic studies in live specimens ranging from imaging the development, to imaging cancer, the function of the cardiovascular system, to neuroimaging, aging and associated diseases to chemotherapeutic interventions and drug delivery. Moreover, they offer to users unique capabilities for basic studies and most importantly for detecting and treating major diseases in clinical practice alongside or replacing established methodologies3.
However, the use of photonic technologies, even though exhibiting very important advantages and offering insight in new bio-molecular functions, still comes with significant disadvantages associated with the diffusive transport of light in biological tissue. Radically new technologies though are being developed for the production, manipulation and delivery of light radiation, based on adaptive wavefront control and shaping to compensate for light diffusion and overcome the limitations of conventional microscopy and obtain high resolution images deeper than a few micrometers.
These very exciting discoveries and advances in biophotonic technologies have now starting to revolutionize the way biological research is performed. The ability to perform in vivo imaging in scales ranging from microscopy to macroscopy at depth from a few micrometers to several centimeters opens up the possibility to shift biological observation towards longitudinal noninvasive studies of dynamic phenomena inside whole animals and help understand better human development, function and disease.