A scientific and technological center "Biophotonics" will be created in Russia, in which laser technologies will be used for cancer diagnostics and surgical operations. The key participant in this project will be the Russian Federal Nuclear Center - All-Russian Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF), located in Sarov and part of Rosatom. RIA Novosti was informed about this in the nuclear center.
Biophotonics, as a scientific branch, studies the interaction of light with biological tissues. “Advances in biophotonics in medicine have provided insight into the mechanisms of human disease and aging at the cellular and molecular level. Light is unique not only in that it makes it possible to observe the processes occurring in living objects, but also can affect them in a non-invasive or minimally invasive way, that is, without destroying tissues. This gives grounds to assert that the medical equipment of the 21st century will be largely based on this physical principle,”the center's specialists said.
For the first time, on the basis of a single center "Biofotnik", the efforts and competencies of enterprises will be combined to create new high-tech medical devices from the development of a new method, laboratory tests, experimental design work and the creation of prototypes, to certification and organization of serial production, including preclinical and clinical studies and conclusion products to open markets.
Priority projects of the Biophotonics Center have been identified, which are in-house developments of the Sarov Nuclear Center. This is a laser surgical complex "Lazurit", intended, in particular, for manipulating soft tissues during surgical operations, as well as for fragmentation of stones in urolithiasis; optical coherence tomograph for constructing three-dimensional images of human and animal tissues; fluovisor - a device for quality control of the so-called photodynamic therapy.
Other projects of the center include fiber-optic spectroscopy for oncological diagnostics, diaphanoscopy (tissue scanning) for otolaryngology, and a thulium fiber medical laser. Thulium-doped fiber lasers can emit light at a wavelength that matches the absorption peak in biological tissues. Such lasers can be used, in particular, in ENT surgery and dentistry, for the treatment of bone diseases and vascular pathology.
The interaction of light with biological tissues occurs in different ways, depending on the type of tissue and its condition - whether it is healthy or sick. Therefore, for a number of medical areas it is possible to create diagnostic and therapeutic techniques based on the action of light. Large-scale development of unique light sources, detectors and visualization systems is currently underway in the world. This requires the combined efforts of specialists from various disciplines: physicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, as well as mathematicians and programmers.
There are two main areas of work in biophotonics. The first thing that usually refers to the term biophotonics is the use of light to obtain information about the state of biological objects. That is, the use of optical methods for studying and diagnosing biological molecules, cells and tissues. In this case, one of the main advantages is the preservation of the integrity of the membrane of the studied cells. The second direction of research, more traditional and developed for a long time, is the use of light as a tool for influencing biological tissues, that is, as a carrier of energy, for example, for therapy purposes.