Handbook of Biomedical Optics

For researchers and undergraduate and graduate students, Boas (physics, Harvard Medical School) et al. compile 35 chapters on the use of light in medicine and biology, such as for the delivery of non or minimally-invasive diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. After introducing optics and the optical properties of tissue, researchers working in various medical fields in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia discuss different forms of spectroscopy and its application.They cover methods that exploit intrinsic absorption and scattering contrast, dynamic contrast, and fluorescence and Raman contrast mechanisms; tomography, from optical coherence tomography to diffuse optical tomography and photoacoustic tomography; conventional and innovative technologies and their translation to biomedical applications in the basic sciences and clinical studies; exogenous agents in molecular imaging. Examples of how light is being used to treat disease and injury are provided. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dr. David A. Boas is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School and Associate Physicist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelors Degree in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY in 1991 and his Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, also in Physics. His research interests include the following: photon migration in highly scattering media with emphasis on diffuse optical tomography, clinical applications of diffuse optical tomography in brain and breast radiology and fundamental studies of brain function and stroke using diffuse optical tomography and optical microscopy. Dr. Boas has been an Associate Editor of Optics Express and Guest Editor of Medical Physics and Journal of Biomedical Optics. He is a member of SPIE and the Optical Society of America (OSA), and has served as Conference Program Chair for various OSA topical meetings.

Dr. Constantinos Pitris is an Assistant Professor in the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Cyprus. He completed his studies at the University of Texas at Austin (BS Honors in Electrical Engineering, 1993, MS in Electrical Engineering, 1995), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in Electrical and Medical Engineering, 2000), and Harvard Medical School (MO Magna Cum Laude in Medicine, 2002). He has worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as a postdoctoral associate at the Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His main research interests cover the areas of optics and biomedical imaging. The goal of this research is the introduction of new technologies in clinical applications for the improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic options. He is an active member of the OSA and a reviewer for Optics Letters, Applied Optics and Biomedical Optics.

Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Ramanujam earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin in 1995 and trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania from 1996-2000. Prior to her tenure at Duke, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 2000-2005. Dr. Ramanujam's interests in the field of biophotonics are centered on research and technology development for applications to cancer. She is developing novel quantitative optical sensing and imaging tools for translational applications in cancer research. She has been leading a multidisciplinary effort to translate these technologies into pre-clinical models and cancer patients. Dr. Ramanujam is a fellow of the OSA and was invited to be a panel member for the Department of Defense (DOD) Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) Integration Panel. She has received several awards for her work in cancer research and technology development, including Era of Hope Scholar awards from the DOD and a Global Indus Technovator award from MIT.