Introduction to the issue on biophotonics

The objective of this JSTQE Issue on Biophotonics is to highlight recent progress and trends in innovative biophotonics technology development. The papers published in this issue cover a broad range of advanced biophotonics areas summarized in the following sections: 1) bioimaging: optical coherence tomography and microscopy, nonlinear optical imaging, and novel multimodality imaging approaches; 2) biosensing: multifunctional biosensing, and novel biosensing approaches; 3) biophotonic science: mechanisms of light-cell and lighttissue interactions, advanced modeling methods in biophotonics, and light induced biophotonics effects; 4) biophotonic technology: advanced technologies in biophotonic diagnostics and therapeutics, infrared technology in biophotonics, and novel laser, biomedical and fiber optics tools and devices in biophotonics. These key research topics are highlighted as comprehensive overviews of the current status and future trends, as well as original results and recent developments in the field of biophotonics. This issue contains 33 papers, including 18 invited and 15 contributed papers authored by well-established research groups and promising scientists from all over the world. The invited papers include extended reviews on recent biophotonic developments and clinical applications in the areas of highresolution multispectral bioimaging, combined multifunctional microscopy, nonlinear deep tissue imaging, single molecule imaging, optical coherence elastography, cellular and molecular mechanisms of photobiomodulation, tissue optical clearing, clinical ultrafast laser surgery, infrared laser nerve stimulation, and novel tapered diode lasers for biophotonics. The contributed papers cover a broad variety of key biophotonic research areas including recently obtained original results on multimodal bioimaging and sensing, high resolution phase-sensitive magnetomotive optical coherence microscopy and elastography, and laser-assisted typing of polymorphic human genes.