Biophotonics

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Biophotonics is the general term for applications of photonics in biology .

Biophotonics is therefore the collective term for all techniques that deal with the interaction of organic material and photons , the light quanta. This concerns emission , absorption , reflection , scattering (physics) or other interactions of electromagnetic radiation in the visible, near infrared and ultraviolet range with living organisms or organic material.

This includes research into various luminescence effects in biological tissue or microscopic methods such as laser scanning microscopy or medical methods such as photodynamic therapy . Other areas of Biophotonics use light as a kind of miniature Tool: optical tweezers can cells maintained and cell components, and are moved, with the Nano - laser scalpel are performed sections within a cell. The LASIK method for correcting ametropia in the human eye is already widespread .

Biophotonics in Germany

For many years, biophotonics has also been the subject of BMBF research funding , since the combination of optical technologies and issues from the life science field results in the potential for numerous new fields of application with great economic prospects. The study "Biophotonics - Where is the journey going to?" Provides an overview of the funding status of biophotonics in Germany. which was published in 2005 by Kraus Technology Consulting and Deloitte Business Consulting.

history

Historically, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek can be seen as the forefather of biophotonics in the 17th century , who manufactured some of the first microscopes himself and was thus able to carry out the first investigations on microorganisms and cells.

Another pioneer of biophotonics can be seen in Robert Koch , who is working with Ernst Abbe on new techniques and improvements in optical microscopes. This interdisciplinary collaboration was one of the foundations for Robert Koch's groundbreaking discoveries.

Another milestone was the development of phase contrast microscopy by Frits Zernike , with which the first cell division could be photographed.

One aspect of biophotonics that deals with spontaneous light emission from biological tissue goes back to the work of the Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch from the 1920s . After experiments with germinating onions, he suggested that living cells emit very weak light radiation. He called it "mitogenic radiation" because of his assumption that this radiation could trigger cell division ( mitosis ). A controversial research branch of biophotonics that follows from this and that deals with the interpretation of this spontaneous light emission can be found in the article " Biophoton ".

Modern biophotonics as the application of photonics to the examination of biological tissues essentially emerged at the end of the 1990s through the development of modern laser technology .

See also

literature

Web links

General links on the topic

Special institutes