Challenges in Biology and Medicine with Synchrotron Infrared Light

The brightness (or brilliance) of synchrotron radiation was exploited in infrared microspectroscopy. Among application of this synchrotron-based microanalytical technique, biological and biomedical investigations, at the diffraction-limited spot size, are exhibit of an increasing interest among almost all the existing infrared beamline worldwide. This paper is presenting the main properties of such a source, coupled with an infrared microscope. Several important applications in biomedical field are reported: cancer cells studies and drug effects, human substantia nigra in Parkinson's disease, β-amyloids deposits in Alzheimer's disease. (authors)