ABSTRACT
During recent decades, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has pro vided a great deal of valuable information on biophysics and biochemistry by investigating isolated biomolecules such as proteins (1), lipids (2), carbohydrates (3), and nucleic acids (4). Within the last five years, attention has begun to focus on the task of transferring the gained knowledge and dedicated instrumentation to studies of complex biological matters as intact microbial or mammalian cells, tissues, and body fluids. In principle, this approach is intended to be taken one step further, where FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy is used for the detection of biochemical abnormalities, associated with or causing a disease. Efforts to de velop vibrational spectroscopic techniques, which are suited for biodiagnostics, are now discussed in the research community (5).
