Translational Photoacoustic Imaging for Disease Diagnosis, Monitoring, and Surgical Guidance: introduction to the feature issue.

This feature issue of <i>Biomedical Optics Express</i> covered all aspects of translational photoacoustic research. Application areas include screening and diagnosis of diseases, imaging of disease progression and therapeutic response, and image-guided treatment, such as surgery, drug delivery, and photothermal/photodynamic therapy. The feature issue also covers relevant developments in photoacoustic instrumentation, contrast agents, image processing and reconstruction algorithms.