Photonics Poised to Cross Over into Biotech: Utility of Products in the Biomedical Arena Is Driving Exponential Growth for Biophotonics

摘要

It is rare that one can predict the future, especially in the healthcare market. Foreseeing a future growth spike can be especially difficult. Often there are clues that dramatic growth will occur, however. A dead give away may be if scores of new competitors enter a market and the existing companies do not suffer. Another clue is the presence of a rich pool of untapped customers who could benefit from the products. Both of these factors are evident in biophotonics, the broad term for the application, modification, and detection of photons in cells, tissues, or organisms. Generally used in medical imaging to achieve greater amplification and more precise localization of specific areas of a specimen, biophotonics is, at this time, limited to the research laboratory—mostly in pharmaceutical discovery and development, molecular biology research, clinical research, and histology/cytology research.