Acquiring and mining the data from light-cell interaction experiments

Light-cell interactions underlie the successful therapeutic treatment of various diseases with light. Experiments to reveal how the light with various wavelengths and intensities interacts with targeted cells to treat a specific disease are hence the key to understand the underlying mechanisms, and furthermore to verify and determine the effective light dosage. Unlike physical systems, e.g. mechanical and electrical, the responses of biological systems to external stimuli are rather subtle, and much more difficult to measure. These experiments and measurements usually rely on special biochemical test assays, fluorescence/spectrum measurement devices, high- or super-resolution microscopes. The data and their acquisition from such experiments are hence much more scarce, uncertain, time-consuming and costly. In this work, we mainly introduce the experimental requirements to precisely measure and control the key light parameters of LED light sources. Furthermore, the basic techniques to process the data and thereby to mine the underlying information hidden beneath them are also introduced, based on the literature and the recent research practices in our laboratory.