Guest editorial introduction to the issue on nanobiophotonics

The papers in this special issue focus on the topic of nanobiophotonics, an advanced field of modern science and biomedical nanotechnology. This new field continues to vastly expend with state-of-the-art developments across the entire spectrum of biomedical applications ranging from fundamental studies of light-nanobiomaterial interactions to clinical diagnostics and therapeutics with nanophotonics. In nanobiophotonics research areas, there has been great impetus recently for noninvasive imaging and sensing intracellular structures and functions as well as for obtaining quantitative information for light-tissue interactions at the cellular, intracellular and molecular level. The papers in this issue offer some of the latest leading-edge developments in nanobiophotonics. Some of these developments include advanced optical nanoimaging and nanosensing techniques based on nanoprobes enhanced imaging and sensing principles employing various highly effective nanobiomaterials such as nanoparticles, quantum dots, and plasmonic nanostructures. These techniques offer an effective and fast way for sensing and monitoring various biomedical quantities in-vivo with a nanoresolution beyond the diffraction limit. Other new developments include optical manipulation of nanoparticles, single molecule spectroscopy and imaging, integrated nanoprobe-enhanced diagnostics and therapeutics, and novel nanobiophotonics devices