Preface — Introduction to the Special Issue for Chinese-Russian Workshop on Biophotonics and Biomedical Optics.

The Chinese-Russian Workshop on Biophotonics and Biomedical Optics 2023 brought together scientists, engineers, and clinical researchers from Russia and China to discuss the application of optical science, photonics, and imaging technologies in biology and medicine. The workshop featured two plenary lectures and twenty invited presentations, and this special issue of the Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences includes selected papers from the workshop. The papers cover a range of topics, including optical imaging techniques, monitoring cell behavior, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, photodynamic therapy, and neural networks for biomedical applications. The issue provides readers with the latest developments in biophotonics and biomedical optics. [Extracted from the article]