Synchrotron radiation infrared microspectroscopy: Insights on biomedicine

Human health is a subject matter that requires a multifold strategy starting by understanding the molecular basis of diseases, development of diagnostic approaches, and subsequently by finding possible innovative treatments. Neurodegenerative diseases, degenerative medicine, diabetes, preeclampsia, and pharmaceutics are just a few examples to mention. Therefore, the challenge for the scientific community is to develop new and creative means for acquiring, processing and interpreting the biomolecular information involved with tissues, single cells or cells in a microenvironment, at cellular and sub-cellular resolution. Synchrotron facilities open the door for a huge number of biological and biomedical applications, where high spatial resolution and high quality information are a must. This review highlights the strong role that the Synchrotron radiation-FTIR microspectroscopy (SR-mu FTIR) plays in various biomedical fields with a special focus on the above-mentioned cases.