Radiation induces a variety of chemical processes in biological tissues. This volume is a synthesis of up-to-the-minute reviews on such photochemical and photobiological sensitized reactions with particular relevance to photomedicine. The first part gives a description of experimental techniques for the study of the primary processes after radiation absorption by biological systems. It is followed by chapters on singlet oxygen and photomedicine, considering both phototherapy and photochemotherapy. These sections also discuss the next generation of potential photosensitizing drugs.Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Photosensitisation - Molecular, Cellular and Medical Aspects, held at the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, July 4 - 18, 1987Radiation induces a variety of chemical processes in biological tissues. This volume is a synthesis of up-to-the-minute reviews on such photochemical and photobiological sensitized reactions with particular relevance to photomedicine. The first part gives a description of experimental techniques for the study of the primary processes after radiation absorption by biological systems. It is followed by chapters on singlet oxygen and photomedicine, considering both phototherapy and photochemotherapy. These sections also discuss the next generation of potential photosensitizing drugs.Past, present and future of photosensitisers.- Primary photochemical processes.- Continuous irradiation and emission methods.- Fluorescence lifetimes of chromophores interacting with biomolecules.- Pulse radiolysis.- The photophysics and photochemistry of some dye sensitisers.- Spectral properties of hypericin-metal complexes.- Photolysis of the photosensitisers biothionol and fentichlor.- Laser flash photolysis and singlet oxygen quantum yields of anthracyclines.- Characterization of the anthralin radical by pulse radiolysis and laser photolysis.- Photophysical and photodynamic properties of new photosensitisers.- Photoacoul³˜