Photodynamic Therapy - Light for Treatment of Disease

I am personally fond of the fluorescent proteins and their applications to biological investigation, including FRET, however I decided that other papers for tomorrow had this area pretty well covered. So I embarked on a search for further photophysical applications in biology with relevance. I found many interesting papers, however many I felt were too specific in their study of obscure molecules to perhaps be relevant for a broad discussion, or results felt incomplete as investigation continues in the field.

Finally, I found what I consider to be a well rounded review of a topic with very important medical applications, Photodynamic Therapy (PDT). You may be familiar with the concept however it is new to me, and this paper ("Photophysics and photochemistry of photodynamic therapy: fundamental aspects") presents a clear photophysical description of the process.

If you are not familiar with PDT, it is used as a treatment for cancer and other diseases by specifically targeting and destroying unwanted/harmful cells. A light sensitive drug is administered that, upon absorption of light at the appropriate wavelength, essentially oxidises intracellular molecules, thereby destroying the targeted cells. An optical window for PDT in tissue is defined by the absorption spectra of the most important chromophores: water, hemoglobin, melanin, and cytochromes.

I look forward to a discussion of photophysics tomorrow. On another note however, I will be unable to attend for the second half of our meeting so perhaps the presentations (Ack and Tomas) could be in the first half? As a result I may have limited input in the following discussion. Regardless, see you all tomorrow. Cheers, Alex.