太赫兹光谱与成像在生物医学领域中的应用

The application of terahertz spectroscopy and imaging in biomedicine

太赫兹科学技术的良好发展势头已经在医药领域逐渐得到了重视与应用。与红外辐射、核磁共振、X射线、超声波等传统医疗诊断技术相比较,太赫兹电磁波技术具有低能量、高空间分辨率和宽带光谱分析能力等独特优势,从而为人体成像以及太赫兹波与人体组织相互作用研究提供了一种可靠的技术方法;由于太赫兹波的穿透性强,且指纹峰的专属性较高,能够在药物的检测与鉴别等方面发挥重要作用。基于太赫兹波段的以上优异特点,文章在介绍太赫兹光谱与成像技术在生物医学领域中的应用时,重点分析了太赫兹电磁波技术对人体皮肤组织的研究,人体的基因表述,对生物体细胞影响的研究,对癌症和骨头等组织的研究,以及对药物的研究等方面的现状和发展。基于上述的研究进展,文章介绍了太赫兹科学技术在未来的医学领域中面临的挑战,并展望了发展前景。

Terahertz （THz） science and technology is gaining increasing attention in the bio- medical field. Compared with traditional medical diagnosis methods using infrared radiation, nuclear magnetic resonance, X-rays or ultrasound, THz radiation has low energy, high spatial resolution, a broad spectral range, and is a reliable means of imaging for the human body. Terahertz waves have strong penetration and high fingerprint specificity, so they can play an important role in drug detection and identification. This paper reviews the special techniques based on conventional THz time-domain setups in disease detection and drug identification. With regard to the biomedical fields, we focus on the application of THz radiation in studies of skin tissue, gene expression, cells, cancer imaging, the quantitative analysis of drugs, and so on. We also present an overview of the future challenges and prospects of THz research in medicine.