Editorial

Biophotonics – today and tomorrow

Dear reader,

The fluorescence lifetime is a direct indicator of theinteractions between a fluorophore and its molecularenvironment. In recent years, this basically physicaleffect has become the core of a range of new meth-ods for the multidimensional analysis of biologicaltissues and the dynamics in there. The technique offluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is a typical ex-ample of a successful multi-disciplinary approach:The development of detectors and electronics cap-able of time resolved single photon counting wasone part, the research on (green) fluorescent pro-teins another. The latter even earned the Nobelprize in chemistry this year. These are just two ex-amples for a number of technologies that had to becombined for the extremely successful research thatis going on today using FLIM methods.

This topical issue on “Multiphoton Imaging andFLIM” was arranged at the 3rd Workshop on Ad-vanced Multiphoton and Fluorescence LifetimeImaging Techniques FLIM 2008 held in Saarbru-cken. I am very grateful to the guest editors Kar-sten Konig (Saarbrucken) and Alberto Diaspro(Genoa), who directed and supported the work onthis issue. The articles present a number of techni-cal advances and several new applications in biolo-gical and medical research. The issue starts withtwo review articles on multiphoton (SHG) micro-scopy [1] as one of the basic technological advance-ments and on medical application which discussesthe non-invasive multiphoton imaging of extracellu-lar matrix structures [2].

Medical application is of course one of the majorgoals of these technologies. Within medical research,the handling of stem cells is nowadays probably oneof the most interesting topics. Hence, the article onthe optical knock out of stem cells [3] has been se-lected as the Editor’s Choice. The Editor’s Choice isa special feature of Journal of Biophotonics to pro-mote hot topics and is freely accessible online to allindividuals and institutions.

Ultrashort laser pulses have become a useful toolnot only for knocking out single cells. Even more im-portant is its impact on multiphoton imaging. Inten-sity is the key feature of these pulses and hence,their skin damaging potential has to be assessed [4].Multiphoton microscopy [5] is an excellent methodfor analyzing skin structures and, for instance, thetransport of xenobiotic substances in biological tis-sue. This method was used to find out how (far) Zincoxide nanoparticles penetrate human skin which isof particular importance for the development anduse of sun blockers.

Whereas the first part of this issue focuses on ap-plications, the second part addresses technical devel-opments. New devices such as a spectrofluorometerbased on a supercontinuum lightsource [6], a newmicroendoscope [7] and a new FLIM multiwell platereader [8] are dedicated for the research work in thevarious laboratories or in a clinical setting.

One particular reason for me to write this editorialwas to look back on the first year of the Journal ofBiophotonics. It was hard work for the authors andreviewers on the one side, and for the editors and allthose who ensured the publication process on theother side. The echo from the community was verypositive, not only at the official launch event inStrasbourg (F). With an average time of 51 daysfrom submission to acceptance, Journal of Biopho-tonics is the fastest journal in its field. Of course, thisis only possible due to the outstanding efforts of re-viewers and editors, to whom I would like to expressmy deepest gratitude on this occasion. Within thepublishing house we need another 35 days by aver-age from acceptance to publication and I would liketo thank the technical staff for their tireless engage-ment to maintain this standard.

Next year we have plans to develop the Journalof Biophotonics further. You may recognize certainlayout changes in this issue already, and a few morewill follow next year. However, the main challengein 2009 will be the step from 6 to 12 issues per year.

# 2008 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Journal of

BIOPHOTONICS

J. Biophoton. 1, No. 6, 435–436 (2008) / DOI 10.1002/jbio.200810521

The Journal of Biophotonics serves the various re-searchers who develop and apply photonics technol-ogy in medical applications. For these communities,we aim to offer the fastest platform for their publica-tions. Next year, this platform will be expanded toinclude more topical issues and more regular con-tent. Serving the needs of the community is the basicidea behind the journal and hence, we strive to fol-low the requests from our readers and authors.

To ensure widest possible visibility and easy ac-cessibility, online access to the journal will remainfree of charge in 2009 within our opt-in model (yourlibrarian has to register).

The Journal of Biophotonics had a good start andthere is every reason to expect further improvementnext year. I hope you will be part of it – either as areader or even as a contributor.

All the best for a successful New Year 2009!

Andreas ThossPublisherWiley-VCH Verlag, Berlin

References

[1] P. Bianchini and A. Diaspro, Three-dimensional (3D)backward and forward second harmonic generation(SHG) microscopy of biological tissues, J. Biophoton.1, 443–450 (2008).

[2] K. Schenke-Layland, Non-invasive multiphoton ima-ging of extracellular matrix structures, J. Biophoton. 1,451–462 (2008).

[3] A. Uchugonova et al., Optical knock out of stem cellswith extremely ultrashort femtosecond laser pulses, J.Biophoton. 1, 463–469 (2008).

[4] F. Fischer et al., Assessing the risk of skin damage dueto femtosecond laser irradiation, J. Biophoton. 1, 470–477 (2008).

[5] M. S. Roberts et al., In vitro and in vivo imaging ofxenobiotic transport in human skin and in the rat liver,J. Biophoton. 1, 478–493 (2008).

[6] H. B. Manning et al., A compact, multidimensionalspectrofluorometer exploiting supercontinuum genera-tion, J. Biophoton. 1, 494–505 (2008).

[7] K. Konig et al., Multiphoton tissue imaging using high-NA microendoscopes and flexible scan heads for clini-cal studies and small animal research, J. Biophoton. 1,506–513 (2008).

[8] C. B. Talbot et al., High speed unsupervised fluores-cence liefetime imaging confocal multiwell plate readerfor high content analysis, J. Biophoton. 1, 514–521(2008).

Andreas Thoss received hisdiploma (1995) and docto-rate (2003) in Physics fromthe Free University in Ber-lin. For both degrees, heworked at the Max-Born-In-stitute in Berlin in the fieldof ultra short laser pulses.From 1996 to 1999 he held aposition as R&D specialistin a company for medical la-ser systems. In 2003 hejoined the German branch

of Wiley as Publishing Editor Physics. He conducted anumber of photonics book projects and founded sev-eral journals. In 2008, he launched the Journal of Bio-photonics together with Jurgen Popp and Gert von Bal-ly. In 2008 he worked as Director R&D in a scientificstart-up company. The same year, he rejoined Wileywith an appointment as Publisher. In this position he isresponsible for the development of a major part of Wi-ley’s global physics and mathematics journal program.

# 2008 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.biophotonics-journal.org

Editorial436

Journal of

BIOPHOTONICS