Laser technology to facilitate drug discovery and development processes: Perspective to recent advancements

Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER consists of narrow beam of light with similar wavelengths and can be easy to focus on small objects. Laser is now a days very useful for lot of technologies and instruments. Here in this chapter, we have discussed about the use of laser light for different applications starting from crystal nucleation, structural determination including chirality, generation of more potent stable photo substance, fragmentation of nanoparticles, surface modifications, drilling of pharmaceutical tablets. We can use laser beam effectively to generate crystal nuclei. Laser can be also used to induce selective crystallization of the metastable form of the drug which might be helpful for the development of therapeutic drugs. The complex structure of the organic or biomolecule can be solved by using laser beams of particular frequencies. In drug discovery, laser can be used in different other aspects. For examples, laser ray can be used to break the large molecules into smaller fragments so the solubility and other pharmacological properties of the drugs can be improved and becomes druggable. Laser irradiation can also be used to perform selective surface modification with minimum surface damage. This technique is really simple and can be easily controlled. Further it is environmentally clean and safe. The release of medications can also be developed by laser drilling technique. This chapter focuses on the use of laser therapy in drug development and enhancing its delivery.