Feature issue of Biomedical Optics Express

Biological Cells as Natural Biophotonic Devices: Fundamental and Applications

Submission Opens:1 October 2021

Submission Deadline: 1 January 2022

Biomedical Optics Express welcomes submissions to a feature issue on "Biological cells as natural biophotonic devices: fundamental and applications." The use of live cells in optics and photonics is rapidly becoming an emerging trend in biomedical and biotechnology areas with suggestive advancements being achieved in recent times. Single or ensembles of biological cells can behave as natural biolenses and their optical behavior is exploitable for medical diagnostics purposes. In addition, cells can act as biolenses for imaging at nanoscale or are capable to operate as optics biolenses for optical tweezers and thus manipulate the matter at nanoscale. Such functionalities can be performed also in vivo, thus operating for live organisms. It has been also demonstrated that live cells can produce photonics jets or also host optical microresonators for lasing or even as lens for lithography purposes. Liquid medium with red blood cells can also sustain optical propagation and nonlinear effects.

Using natural biolenses is an appealing opportunity for exploring a completely new field that is across biology and photonics and that could open new ideas and concepts in which a biological element can be functionalized for operating as optics/photonics components. The issue will create a collection of papers dealing with this interdisciplinary field that could open new scenarios for biomedical applications.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Single-cell lasers and intracellular biolasers
  • Optical trapping and manipulation of biolenses
  • Imaging and sensing by biolenses
  • Super-resolution imaging
  • Optical tweezers in biotechnology
  • Focusing and waveguiding effects of cells
  • Birefringence, imaging of polarization properties
  • Photonics jets and hooks
  • Droplet microlenses
  • Lab-on-a-Chip & Organ-on-a-Chip devices
  • Imaging with structured light by live cells arrays
  • Optical assembling and patterning of cells
  • Biomedical diagnosis through optical feature of cells

All submissions need to present original, previously unpublished work and will be subject to the normal standards and peer review processes of the journal. The standard Biomedical Optics Express Article Processing Charges will apply to all published articles. To be eligible for publication, an expanded conference paper needs to add value to the original conference proceedings and the conference paper number must be included in the cover letter at submission. Please see Optica Publishing Group's guidelines on expanded conference papers for details.

Please prepare manuscripts according to the author instructions for submission to Biomedical Optics Express and submit through Prism's manuscript submission system, specifying from the drop-down menu that the manuscript is for the feature issue on Biological Cells as Natural Biophotonic Devices.

Feature Editors

Pietro Ferraro, CNR—ISASI Institute of Applied Sciences & Intelligent Systems, Italy (Lead Editor)

Yuchao Li, Institute of Nanophotonics, Jinan University, China

Lisa Miccio, CNR—ISASI Institute of Applied Sciences & Intelligent Systems, Italy

Lingling Shui, School of Information and Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, South China Normal University, China

Yao Zhang, Institute of Nanophotonics, Jinan University, China