Biological and biomedical applications of synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy

The high brightness of synchrotron light, which is about three orders of magnitude greater than a thermal source, has been exploited in biological and biomedical applications of infrared microspectroscopy. The potential of this analytical tool is documented in this article in the study of human tissue (hair and skin) and individual cells: biochemical and bio-structural changes based on corresponding functional groups have been identified and imaged with unprecedented spatial resolution. This technique also provides a new tool for analysis of biochemical kinetics of samples during disease and treatment. In the future, the combination of infrared microspectroscopy with other synchrotron-based microscopic techniques, such as X-ray microscopy, at the same sample location is discussed.