Biophysical insights in Brillouin optical elastography

Brillouin spectroscopy, based on the inelastic scattering of light from thermally driven acoustic waves or phonons, holds great promise in the field of life sciences as it provides functionally relevant micro-mechanical information. Due to the complexity of biological systems such as cells and tissues, which present spatio-temporal heterogeneities, interpretation of Brillouin spectra can be difficult. This talk is aimed to introduce Brillouin microscopy as an emerging form of optical elastography and to give an insight into the biophysical quantities retrieved from Brillouin spectra of biological samples. Applications in biosciences will also be covered with an emphasis to clinically relevant studies.