Medical biophysics

Medical Biophysics refers to the domain of study that uses physics to describe or effect biological process for the purpose of medical application. Like many areas of study that have emerged in recent times, it relies heavily on broad interdisciplinary knowledge between the so-called traditional fields such as physics ( i.e. medical physics, radiation physics or imaging physics) and advanced biology fields such as biochemistry, biophysics, physiology, neuroscience etc.

Some important areas of research in medical biophysics which have evolved from medical physics and diagnostic imaging include medical imaging (e.g. MRI, computed tomography, and PET), oncology and cancer diagnosis using radiolabelling and molecular imaging, and vasculature and circulatory system function.

Some important areas of research in medical biophysics which have evolved from biology and biophysics include using targeted nanomedicine not only for medical imaging but to also deliver energy to disease for treatment. The field of Interdisciplinary Medical Dosimetry (IMD) combines the fields of radiation biology and radiation physics with biochemistry and biophysics to define the proper way of comparing and properly prescribing the deposition of energy into biological tissue and molecular and cellular damage from diverse sources (e.g. x-rays, electrons, protons, hyperthermia, ultrasound, oxidative stress etc.) for medical applications and is an example of a newly emergent subfield of medical biophysics.

See also

• Medical physics
• Biophysics
• Biophysical structures and phenomena

External links

• Journal of Biological Physics
• University of Toronto - Medical Biophysics Department
• University of Western Ontario - Department of Medical Biophysics
• University of Texas - Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Interdisciplinary Program Biophysics/Neurosciences
• Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology
• Biophysical Journal
• Profile of a Medical Biophysicist
• Scientific Research Center of Medical Biophysics, Bulgaria