In biomedical optics and photonics, optical tools are employed for the understanding and treatment of diseases, from the cellular level to macroscopic applications. At the cellular level, highly precise laser applications allow the manipulation, operation, or stimulation of cells, even in living organisms or animals. Optical microscopy has been revolutionized by a thorough understanding of the different markers and their switching behavior.

Marker-free microscopy technologies, like coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering, second-harmonic generation, third-harmonic generation microscopy, or digital holographic microscopy are spreading into multiple biological and clinical imaging applications. OCT is continuously broadening its clinical applicability by becoming even higher resolution, higher speed, and more compact. In the broader field of optics and photonics, biomedical imaging and sensing are the most quickly progressing and expanding areas. Techniques developed in these areas could greatly advance physical, engineering, and biological knowledge as well as optics and photonics technology.

This special section on biomedical imaging and sensing will be devoted to advanced biomedical imaging and sensing techniques.

• advanced microscopy
• advanced endoscopy
• superresolution in biomedical imaging and sensing
• computational imaging in biomedical imaging and sensing
• adaptive optics in biomedical imaging and sensing
• structured illumination in biomedical imaging and sensing
• interferometry and holography in biology and medicine
• optical coherence tomography
• diffuse optical tomography
• digital holography
• quantitative phase imaging
• photoacoustic imaging
• multimodal imaging and sensing
• optical biopsy
• spectroscopic imaging and sensing
• multispectral imaging and sensing
• scattering imaging
• fluorescence imaging
• molecular imaging
• terahertz sensing
• optical fibers and sensors for biomedicine
• multimodality optical diagnostic systems.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. Peer review will commence immediately upon manuscript submission, with a goal of making a first decision within 6 weeks of manuscript submission. Special sections are opened online once a minimum of four papers have been accepted. Each paper is published as soon as the copyedited and typeset proofs are approved by the author. Submissions should follow the guidelines of JBO. Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://jbo.msubmit.net. A cover letter indicating that the submission is intended for this special section should be included.

Dr. Steven L. Jacques’ interest in biophotonics started early during his PhD at Berkley (1984) and postdoc at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he studied the distribution of water in the stratum corneum of human skin. During the following years, he and his collaborators were instrumental in defining some of the most fundamental tools of this field, such as the determination of optical properties of many biological tissues, and Monte Carlo models of light transfer in biological environments. He is known for being a passionate and effective communicator, and his lectures in the fundamentals of biophotonics and the website he compiled with Scott Prahl (omlc.org) have been used by thousands of researchers all over the world and remain an excellent reference for anybody beginning studies in the field. He was also one of the first researchers in our community to collaborate with scientists in China, most notably the Britton Chance Center of Medical Photonics in Wuhan, where he was a frequent visitor and collaborator.

Dr. Jacques’ work spans several biomedical optics disciplines, which is a testament to his curiosity as a scientist. He developed handheld systems to noninvasively measure hyperbilirubinemia in newborns, which are now in use in neonatal care. Most recently, he has worked in polarization-based imaging of skin cancer and in vivo sub-nm measurements of vibration of the cochlear membrane of the inner ear.

This particular special section is intended to honor Prof. Steve Jacques’ contribution to biomedical optics and will focus on the following main topics:

Tissue optics
As the biomedical optics field moves into new clinical applications, an increasingly accurate determination of optical tissue properties is necessary for the development of new modalities and to understand pathological conditions. Novel instrumentation and models for the determination of biological optical properties are necessary, as well as a better understanding of variation in human versus animal tissue optical properties. This accurate determination is indispensable to the development of new optical phantoms for the characterization of novel optical modalities.

Models of light transfer
Biomedical instrumentations based on optical principles are entering the clinical environment at a rapid pace. Models of light propagation in tissue are necessary to meet the requirements in clinical setting for accuracy and speed. Parallelized inverse Monte Carlo models, radiative transport theory and diffusion approximation, as well as ad hoc models and big data models cover a broad range of clinical situations and applications. Furthermore, novel models that include a complete array of tissue properties (spectral, mechanical/acoustic, etc.) and models that can deal with a vast array of optical radiation properties such as coherence and polarization are of great interest.

Polarized light imaging and sensing for biomedical applications
Dr. Jacques’ pioneering work in skin polarimetry has opened new areas of research in biophotonics, and the use of polarized imaging and sensing in clinical and preclinical applications is quickly expanding. Novel modalities such as polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) and Mueller matrix polarimetry are yielding new insights on tissue structure and mechanical properties. Faster imaging strategies, novel calibration techniques, and new inverse models are needed to bring these modalities to the clinical setting.

Novel approaches in mentoring and education in biophotonics
Dr. Jacques’ passion for mentoring has helped many students and researchers over the years. Together with Scott Prahl, he was one of the first educators to post online lectures on the principles of biophotonics at a time when academic books on the topic were not available. His website omlc.org has reached a sizeable web-based audience and is now fostering the education of many future biophotonics scientists. New education paradigms are needed to improve the generational transfer of knowledge utilizing novel educational strategies and technological advances.

Contributed Papers
In addition to the above-mentioned topics, areas of interest for this special section include, but are not limited to:

• Biomedical optical spectroscopy and imaging: systems and applications
• Photoacoustic tomography or microscopy, acousto-optical imaging
• Microscopic tools for in vivo imaging.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. Peer review will commence immediately upon manuscript submission, with a goal of making a first decision within 6 weeks of manuscript submission. Special sections are opened online once a minimum of four papers have been accepted. Each paper is published as soon as the copyedited and typeset proofs are approved by the author. Submissions should follow the guidelines of JBO. Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://jbo.msubmit.net. A cover letter indicating that the submission is intended for this special section should be included.

In 2018, the Journal of Biomedical Optics invites contributions for the third annual special section based on the papers presented at SPIE BiOS Translational Research Symposium at Photonics West. This symposium highlights the unique challenges associated with translating biophotonics technologies from benchtop to bedside. This special section is intended to complement the Translational Research Symposium by providing archival, peer-reviewed manuscripts that describe technologies and best practices that will further accelerate the translation of biophotonics research into clinical practice.

Papers should demonstrate how optics and photonics technologies can be used to solve healthcare challenges, including improving clinical outcome, and enhancing cost-effectiveness. A range of topics will be explored, spanning from early phase feasibility studies to emerging strategies for disease detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Key concepts that will be addressed include:

• Identifying clinical problems and unmet clinical needs
• Matching biophotonics solutions to clinical problems
• Developing clinical outcome measure(s) to assess efficacy
• Describing operational barriers to clinical translation
• Disseminating and adopting biophotonics technologies.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. Peer review will commence immediately upon manuscript submission, with a goal of making a first decision within 6 weeks of manuscript submission. Special sections are opened online once a minimum of four papers have been accepted. Each paper is published as soon as the copyedited and typeset proofs are approved by the author. Submissions should follow the guidelines of JBO. Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://jbo.msubmit.net. A cover letter indicating that the submission is intended for this special section should be included.

In the field of diffuse optics, rapid quantitative imaging of living tissue samples over wide fields of view has been a topic of great interest and potential. For a long time, strategies typically consisted of one of the following: 1) raster-scanning the field of view with a point source, with challenges for rapid imaging, or 2) "full-frame" imaging methods which typically required empirical assumptions about tissue optical properties. More recently, the emergence of spatial frequency domain methods in diffuse and quasi-diffuse regimes has created new opportunities to quantitatively characterize tissues. In particular, spatial frequency domain imaging (SFDI) has enabled rapid characterization of large areas of tissue. Because of the multiplexing advantages provided by light projector instrumentation, SFDI measurements can typically characterize all the pixels within a camera image--virtually any field-of-view can be measured quantitatively and rapidly. Additionally, SFDI can be easily combined with other diffuse optical approaches, including fluorescence, polarization, and multispectral imaging modalities. Consequently, this method has generated enthusiasm and witnessed rapid growth, allowing many new innovations in the fields of biology and medicine.

The principles of this method are 20 years old, and the earliest imaging applications just over 10 years old. This special section will be devoted to the latest advances in instrumentation and application development of SFDI and related spatial frequency domain modalities. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to:

• diffuse optical imaging
• diffuse optical tomography
• microscopy
• fluorescence imaging
• instrumentation
• acquisition methods
• processing methods
• preclinical applications
• clinical applications
• clinical translation.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. Peer review will commence immediately upon manuscript submission, with a goal of making a first decision within 6 weeks of manuscript submission. Special sections are opened online once a minimum of four papers have been accepted. Each paper is published as soon as the copyedited and typeset proofs are approved by the author. Submissions should follow the guidelines of JBO. Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://jbo.msubmit.net. A cover letter indicating that the submission is intended for this special section should be included.

June 11-13th 2018 marks the Second Britton Chance International Symposium on Metabolic Imaging/Spectroscopy at University of Pennsylvania honoring the memory of Professor Britton Chance (1913-2010). Britton Chance was a prolific and legendary scientist who made pioneering contributions in the fields of radar, biochemistry, and biophysics, and who was a founding father of in vivo NMR and biomedical photonics. His research activities spanned physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, and medicine with aims to generate new understanding about tissue function and disease, and dreams to impact health science and clinical translation.

This special section of the Journal of Biomedical Optics welcomes submissions on topics in this spirit, e.g., focused on biomedical photonics and optical imaging/spectroscopy of tissue metabolism and related concepts.

A range of topics can be explored, spanning from technical development, translation and clinical application of metabolic/functional imaging, and spectroscopy methods for disease detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Some relevant topics include:

• Instrumentation and technical development of metabolic imaging/spectroscopic methods
• Imaging metabolism and functions of normal and diseased tissues
• Methods and applications for disease diagnosis and treatment
• Methods and applications for understanding physiology and biology
• Metabolic imaging/spectroscopy of cells or tissues.

To ensure a timely publication we require all authors to submit their articles by Aug. 15, 2018.  Authors should refer to the formatting and submission guidelines described in the online Authors Guidelines. Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://jbo.msubmit.net. A cover letter indicating that the submission is intended for this special section should be included.

All submissions will be peer reviewed. Peer review will commence immediately upon manuscript submission, with a goal of making a first decision within 6 weeks of manuscript submission. Special sections are opened online once a minimum of four papers have been accepted. Each paper is published as soon as the copyedited and typeset proofs are approved by the author.