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To view a list of previously published Special Sections, see Past Special Sections.
FORTHCOMING SPECIAL SECTIONS:
Laser Technologies for Biomedical Applications
Optical Diagnostic and Biophotonic Methods from Bench to Bedside
Selected Topics in Biophotonics: Optical Coherence Tomography and Medical Imaging Using Diffuse Optics
Photoacoustic Imaging and Sensing
Endomicroscopy Technologies and Biomedical Applications
FRET at 65: A Celebration of Förster
October 2012
Laser Technologies for Biomedical Applications
Guest Editors
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Ekaterina Borisova, Ph.D.
Institute of Electronics
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
72, Tsarigradsko chaussee Boulevard
1784 Sofia
Bulgaria
Fax: +359 2-974-5742
Tel: +359 2-979-5875
E-mail: borisova@ie.bas.bg
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Alexander Priezzhev, Ph.D.
Physics Department and International Laser Center
M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
119991, Moscow, Leninskye Gory, b. 1, str. 2
Russia
Tel: +7 495-939-2612
Fax: +7 495-939-3113
E-mail: avp2@mail.ru
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Call for papers: This special section of the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) is planned as a collection of selected papers presented at the 19th International Conference on Advanced Laser Technologies (September 3-8, 2011, Golden Sands Resort, Bulgaria). Authors who did not participate in the conference are also invited to submit papers focused on laser technologies for biomedical applications.
Topics may include:
- Laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy of biological tissues
- 3-D imaging techniques, including OCT, Doppler-OCT, two-photon microscopy, and confocal microscopy
- Ultrafast laser technologies for biomedical applications
- Novel laser methods, instrumentation, and technologies in biophotonics and nanobiophotonics
- Optics of blood and other tissues
- Photodynamic medicine
- Optoacoustics/photoacoustics.
Manuscripts due 20 February 2012.
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August 2012
Optical Diagnostic and Biophotonic Methods from Bench to Bedside
Guest Editors
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Bruce Tromberg, Ph.D.
University of California/Irvine
Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinc
1002 Health Sciences Road East
Irvine, California 92612
Tel: 949-824-8705
Fax: 949-824-8413
E-mail: bjtrombe@uci.edu
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Jana Kainerstorfer, Ph.D.
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institutes of Health
Building 9, Room B1E11
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Tel: 301-594-0352
Fax: 301-480-2427
E-mail: kainersj@mail.nih.gov
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Call for papers: After a decade of collaboration among physicists, engineers, and physicians, optical imaging techniques are moving from bench to bedside at an extremely fast rate. Quantification of intrinsic chromophores, scattering properties, and targeted probes provide valuable functional information for diagnosing disease and monitoring therapies. With these advances, optical methods have become critical tools for translational research and studying the fundamental molecular origins of disease processes, from photonic studies of nanoscale interactions to ultrahigh resolution microscopy. This special section follows the Seventh Inter-Institute Workshop on Optical Diagnostics and Biophotonic Methods at the National Institutes of Health, and will be devoted to all aspects of bringing optical imaging technology from the desktop, where quantitative theories are devised; to the bench, where the instrumentation is designed and tested; and finally, to the bedside, where performance is validated in a demanding clinical setting. This workshop is dedicated to the work and legacy of Britton Chance.
Closed for submissions.
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July 2012
Selected Topics in Biophotonics: Optical Coherence Tomography and Medical Imaging Using Diffuse Optics
Guest Editors
Call for Papers: Every other year, an international graduate summer school is held on the island of Ven in Sweden, organized between Lund University in Sweden and the Technical University of Denmark in Denmark (www.biop.dk/biophotonics11/). This call for papers reflects core topics of the school, including the fields of diffuse optical imaging and optical coherence tomography.
Multispectral diffuse optical imaging is a biomedical optical modality providing interesting possibilities to minimally invasively map physiological conditions in tissue without any exogenous labeling agent. It is promising as a powerful diagnostic tool, as well as for controlling and guiding therapy. Improved spatial resolution can be gained by utilizing spatial or temporal discrimination, often in the frequency domain. Recent development has further increased the clinical and preclinical use.
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an emerging biomedical imaging modality that enables high-speed, ultrahigh-resolution, cross-sectional imaging of internal structure in tissues. In the last two decades OCT has established itself as a unique noninvasive optical medical diagnostic imaging modality, enabling unprecedented in vivo cross-sectional tomographic visualization of internal microstructure in a variety of biological systems. Ophthalmology has been the most successful and most commercially active medical field for OCT so far, but several other OCT applications, e.g., cardiology, dentistry, gastroenterology, and dermatology, are on the verge of expanding their market for OCT to be comparable to or larger than that of ophthalmology.
Areas of interest for this special section include, but are not limited to:
- Optical coherence tomography: light sources, systems, and applications
- Diffuse optical imaging
- Fluorescence lifetime imaging
- Molecular imaging based on optical methods
- Photoacoustic imaging
- Photodynamic therapy
- Tissue optics
- Optical trapping and applications in biophotonics.
Closed for submissions.
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June 2012
Photoacoustic Imaging and Sensing
Guest Editors:
Mark A. Anastasio, Ph.D.
Washington University in St. Louis
Department of Biomedical Engineering
St. Louis, Missouri 63130
Tel: 312-567-3926
E-mail: anastasio@wustl.edu
Paul C. Beard, Ph.D.
University College London
Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering
London WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
Tel: 44 207 679 0290
E-mail: pbeard@medphys.ucl.ac.uk
Call for Papers: Photoacoustic imaging is one of the fastest-growing areas of research in biomedical optics. Photoacoustic imaging methods are capable of deep tissue penetration, high ultrasonic resolution, and speckle-free optical contrast. Important emerging applications include in-vivo functional and molecular imaging of cancer, neurophysiology, and vascular disease in both human subjects and preclinical animal models. Major challenges in this field include the development of quantitative methods for functional and molecular imaging and their clinical translation. This special section will cover all topics related to photoacoustic imaging and sensing, including, but not limited to the following:
- photoacoustic (optoacoustic) microscopy
- photoacoustic (optoacoustic) imaging and computed tomography
- photoacoustic (optoacoustic) sensing and spectroscopy
- microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography
- temperature imaging based on the photoacoustic effect
- dual-modality optical-ultrasound imaging
- molecular and nanoparticle contrast agents
- ultrasound-modulated optical (acousto-optical) tomography
- image reconstruction and signal-processing algorithms
- applications of hybrid modalities in biology and medicine.
Closed for submissions.
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February 2012
Endomicroscopy Technologies and Biomedical Applications
Guest Editors:
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Xingde Li, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University
Department of Biomedical Engineering
720 Rutland Avenue, Ross 731B
Baltimore, Maryland 21205
Tel: 410-955-0075
Fax: 410-502-9814
E-mail: xingde@jhu.edu
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Warren S. Grundfest, M.D.
University of California – Los Angeles
Department of Bioengineering
420 Westwood Plaza, 4121H Engineering V
Los Angeles, California 90095-1600
Tel: 310-794-5550
Fax: 310-794-5956
E-mail: warrenbe@seas.ucla.edu
Call for Papers: Recent advances in fiber optics, micro-optics, miniature light sources, sensitive detectors, and microelectromechanical systems technologies have promoted rapid development and clinical translation of high-resolution optical imaging technologies for endomicroscopic assessment of internal organs with unprecedented resolution. These technologies include but are not limited to: confocal, optical coherence tomography, multiphoton fluorescence, second-harmonic generation, and coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy microscopy. The emerging endomicroscopy technologies permit easy interface with current standard “red-flagging” diagnostic endoscopy instruments, enabling real-time noninvasive “optical biopsy” in situ with a great potential to improve current diagnostic yields. In certain organs such as the upper gastrointestinal tract, this integration makes it possible to combine early diagnosis and treatment (e.g., endoscopic mucosal resection) of localized cancer for the first time during a single procedure. This special section seeks to capture the state-of-the-art development of endomicroscopy technologies. Suggested topics include but are not limited to: light delivery systems, ultrafast pulse or broadband spectrum diagnostic systems, miniature aberration-corrected optics, ultracompact scanning devices, system integration, interface with current standard clinical instruments, performance validation, information interpretation, quantitative analysis, in vivo animal model imaging, clinical translation/applications, and demonstration of novel in vivo contrast that was not previously available with current clinical endoscopy technologies. Other topics related to endoscopic optical spectroscopy in situ, the combination of imaging and spectroscopy, and the combination of endomicroscopy and molecular probes are also welcome.
Closed for submissions.
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January 2012
FRET at 65: A Celebration of Förster
Guest Editors:
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Ammasi Periasamy, Ph.D.
University of Virginia
W.M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904
Tel: 434-243-7602
Fax: 434-9825210
E-mail: ap3t@virginia.edu
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Steven S. Vogel, Ph.D.
National Institutes of Health
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Laboratory of Molecular Physiology
Section of Cellular Biophotonics
Rockville, Maryland 20892
Tel: 301-496-9288
Fax: 301-480-8035
E-mail: stevevog@mail.nih.gov
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Sixty-five years ago Prof. Theodor Förster, a German physical chemist, published his first manuscript on resonance energy transfer between fluorescent compounds. In subsequent manuscripts Förster further developed his theory, which quantitatively describes the dipole-dipole nonradiative energy transfer phenomenon. Most importantly, he showed how to express the efficiency of transfer in terms of measured experimental parameters. In his first publication, he even applied his theory to estimate rates of initial steps in photosynthesis, which was one of his motivations. The acronym for this form of energy transfer, FRET, has recently been re-coined to honor Förster’s fundamental contributions: Förster resonance energy transfer. Over the past 20 years the number of FRET citations has increased almost 300-fold. This rapid growth in FRET publications results primarily from the application of FRET spectroscopy and microscopy as a tool to study biological processes such as protein interactions, conformational changes, and the assembly and stoichiometry of biological complexes, and as the basis for the development of new biosensors. Importantly, recent applications of FRET imaging have opened the door for applying many classical quantitative biochemical approaches for FRET analysis, which have been so successful over the past 50 years for in vitro studies, to explore biological reactions inside living cells. This special section of the Journal of Biomedical Optics follows the symposium “FRET at 65: A Celebration of Förster,” held at the University of Virginia, and will be devoted to highlighting the evolution of many aspects of FRET microscopy.
Closed for submissions.
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