The following section is the special issue for the 3rd Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Conference (BISC’17) held on April 19–21, 2017, in Pacifico Yokohama, Japan, in the frame of the Optics & Photonics International 2017 Congress, which consists of twelve optics-related scientific conferences. The special section contains contributed papers based on the presentations at BISC’17. Each paper was reviewed and accepted under the editorial policy of Optical Review. The total number of papers presented in BISC’17 was 72 including 20 invited papers and the total number of participants was 96.

The BISC is intended to provide an international forum for the recent progress of imaging and sensing in biology and medicine, and related areas. BISC’17 covers the recent progress and foresight of imaging and sensing in biology and medicine, and related areas in the following major topical fields:

  • Medical and biological imaging instrumentation and techniques

  • Advanced microscopy

  • Advanced endoscopy

  • Interferometry and holography in biology and medicine

  • Optical coherence tomography

  • Digital holography

  • Quantitative phase imaging

  • Diffuse spectroscopy and tomography

  • Photo-acoustic imaging

  • Multi-modal imaging and sensing

  • Optical biopsy

  • Multi-spectral imaging and sensing

  • Spectroscopic imaging and sensing

  • Fluorescence imaging

  • Molecular imaging

  • Terahertz sensing

  • Imaging and Sensing techniques for biomedicine

  • Optical fibers and sensors for biomedicine

  • Multi-modality optical diagnostic systems

BISC’17 was sponsored by SPIE (The International Society for Optics and Photonics).

Finally, we appreciate all who contributed to BISC’17.

March 2018

Editor of Special Section

Osamu Matoba