page_title: Biophotonics
section_title: Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM)
hierarchical_section_title: Biophotonics / Applications / Other applications / Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM)
caption_attribution_description: English: Shows the depth of penetration of light through human skin
context_page_description: The term biophotonics denotes a combination of biology and photonics, with photonics being the science and technology of generation, manipulation, and detection of photons, quantum units of light. Photonics is related to electronics and photons. Photons play a central role in information technologies, such as fiber optics, the way electrons do in electronics.
  Biophotonics can also be described as the "development and application of optical techniques, particularly imaging, to the study of biological molecules, cells and tissue". One of the main benefits of using the optical techniques which make up biophotonics is that they preserve the integrity of the biological cells being examined.
  Biophotonics has therefore become the established general term for all techniques that deal with the interaction between biological items and photons. This refers to emission, detection, absorption, reflection, modification, and creation of radiation from biomolecular, cells, tissues, organisms, and biomaterials. Areas of application are life science, medicine, agriculture, and environmental science.
context_section_description: Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is an imaging technology that utilizes both laser technology and ultrasound technology.  This dual imaging modality is far superior at imaging deep tissue and vascular tissues than previous imaging technologies. The improvement in resolution provides higher quality images of deep tissues and vascular systems, allowing non-invasive differentiation of cancerous tissues vs healthy tissue by observing such things as "water content, oxygen saturation level, and hemoglobin concentration". Researchers have also been able to use PAM to diagnose endometriosis in rats.
caption: Shows the depth of penetration of light through human skin
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