Diagnosing diseases in our bodies requires measurement of physiological biomarkers non-invasively. Assessing the biomarker levels is a key step in this process. Light allows for non-invasive assessment of the disease in the tissue.

In this talk, we discuss use of light for diagnosis with examples of research done in our group. We will focus on of two conditions – oral cancer and fetal hypoxia diagnosis. In one the case of oral cancer we look at the spatially localized diagnosis or cancer tissue in the oral cavity. In case of fetal hypoxia, we look at temporal change in physiological conditions for diagnosis. In both cases, we see the potential transformative impact of optical spectroscopy on clinical diagnosis.