Subsurface femtosecond tissue alteration: selectively photobleaching macular degeneration pigments in near retinal contact.

This paper uses advances in the ultrafast manipulation of light to address a general need in medicine for a clinical approach that can provide a solution to a variety of disorders requiring subsurface tissue manipulation with ultralow collateral damage. Examples are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), fungal infections, tumors surrounded by overlying tissue, cataracts, etc. Although lasers have revolutionized the use of light in clinical settings, most lasers employed in medicine cannot address such problems of depth-selective tissue manipulation.

D-glucose-induced second harmonic generation response in human erythrocytes.

The first experimental results of the nonresonant second harmonic generation (SHG) studies of human erythrocytes membrane exposed to various glucose concentrations in phosphate buffered saline (PBS solution) are presented in this article. It is shown that the SHG signal from the membrane can be altered as a function of glucose concentration. The link between the variation of the SHG intensity and the membrane dielectric permittivity with glucose is established both theoretically and experimentally by comparison with time domain dielectric spectroscopy (TDDS) measurement data.

Femtosecond laser: a new intradermal DNA delivery method for efficient, long-term gene expression and genetic immunization.

A femtosecond laser beam gene transduction (SG-LBGT) system is described as a novel and efficient method of intradermal (i.d.) nonviral gene delivery in mice by permeabilizing cells utilizing femtosecond laser pulses.

Near-field optics: from subwavelength illumination to nanometric shadowing.

Near-field optics uniquely addresses problems of x, y and z resolution by spatially confining the effect of a light source to nanometric domains. The problems in using far-field optics (conventional optical imaging through a lens) to achieve nanometric spatial resolution are formidable. Near-field optics serves a bridging role in biology between optical imaging and scanned probe microscopy.

Femtosecond infrared laser-an efficient and safe in vivo gene delivery system for prolonged expression.

The major advantages of "naked DNA gene therapy" are its simplicity and a low or negligible immune response. Gene delivery by DNA electroporation (EP) involves injection of DNA and the application of a brief electric pulse to enhance cellular permeability. Although EP is an efficient gene transduction technique in rodents, it requires much higher voltages (>500 V) in larger animals, and hence, in practice it would be hazardous for human patients, as it would cause serious tissue damage.