UCSF Profile
Optical or photonics based methods are playing an increasingly important role in medicine and dentistry by providing a means of minimally invasive diagnostics and imaging without the use of ionizing radiation. Projects include: the use of optical diagnostic tools such as optical coherence tomographic imaging, Raman scattering, IR and fluorescence imaging, and time-resolved photothermal radiometry. In order to use lasers and optical diagnostic tools safely and effectively it is important to characterize the optical properties of the tissue at the wavelengths of interest. Therefore, a major emphasis of the research of the Fried lab has been on the accurate elucidation of those properties.