Biomedical photoacoustics: fundamentals, instrumentation and perspectives on nanomedicine

Abstract

Chunpeng Zou,1,* Beibei Wu,1 Yanyan Dong,1 Zhangwei Song,1 Yaping Zhao,1,* Xianwei Ni,1 Yan Yang,1 Zhe Liu1–3 1Department of Ultrasonic Diagnosis, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, 2Wenzhou Institute of Biomaterials and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3Wenzhou Institute of Biomaterials and Engineering, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is an integrated biomedical imaging modality which combines the advantages of acoustic deep penetration and optical high sensitivity. It can provide functional and structural images with satisfactory resolution and contrast which could provide abundant pathological information for disease-oriented diagnosis. Therefore, it has found vast applications so far and become a powerful tool of precision nanomedicine. However, the investigation of PAI-based imaging nanomaterials is still in its infancy. This perspective article aims to summarize the developments in photoacoustic technologies and instrumentations in the past years, and more importantly, present a bright outlook for advanced PAI-based imaging nanomaterials as well as their emerging biomedical applications in nanomedicine. Current challenges and bottleneck issues have also been discussed and elucidated in this article to bring them to the attention of the readership. Keywords: photoacoustics, imaging, therapy, nanomaterials, nanomedicine

Keywords

• Photoacoustics
• imaging
• therapy
• nanomaterials
• nanomedicine