Light can not only be produced physically from various devices, such as the commonly used incandescent light bulbs and LED lights, but also can be generated molecularly from chemiluminescent and bioluminescent compounds, and Cerenkov luminescent tracers, such as luciferins, luminol, and ¹⁸F-FDG, respectively. We dubbed the molecularly generated light “molecular light”. In this talk, the application of molecular light for imaging of misfolded proteins in Alzheimer’s diseases and Parkinson’s disease will be presented.

For in vivo phototherapy, physically produced light has its well-known limitation of tissue penetration, and hurdles of delivery to target-of-interests beyond shallow locations, such as skin. By contrast, molecular light has nearly limitless tissue penetration and can be delivered to targets as molecules. In this talk, molecular light for in vivo AD therapeutic studies will also be presented.