Peer-reviewed research articles on antimicrobial blue light
There are currently over 2000 peer-reviewed scientific articles on the efficiency of blue light in eliminating different microbes. On this page you can find links to review articles that summarize the findings until early 2022 as well as the most interesting new publications.
Main review articles on blue light
The following review articles give a scientific background on how blue light affects microbes and provide longer lists of references to papers which have tested different microbes.
- Gizem D. Ozdemir, Carolina dos Anjos, Mehmet A. Ozdemir, Leon G. Leanse,Tianhong Dai.
Lights out for Superbugs: Is antimicrobial blue light a potential approach
for future infection Control? Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 224 (2025) 115654
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2025.115654
- M. Hessling, B. Spellerberg, K. Hoenes.
Photoinactivation of bacteria by endogenous photosensitizers and exposure to visible light of different wavelengths – a review on existing data. FEMS Microbiology Letters, Volume 364, Issue 2, January 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnw270
- Leon G. Leanse, Carolina dos Anjos, Sana Mushtaq, Tianhong Dai.
Antimicrobial blue light: A ‘Magic Bullet’ for the 21st century and beyond'. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews 180 (2022) 114057
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2021.114057
- Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Wang, Y., Murray, C. K., Hamblin, M. R., Hooper, D. C., & Dai, T..
Antimicrobial blue light inactivation of pathogenic microbes: State of the art. Drug Resistance Updates. (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drup.2017.10.002
Selected articles on specific topics
Dual-wavelength blue light
- Leanse LG, Goh XS, Cheng JX, Hooper DC, Dai T.
Dual-wavelength photo-killing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. JCI Insight. 2020 Jun 4;5(11):e134343. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.134343. PMID: 32493838; PMCID: PMC7308062.
https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/134343
Biofilms and foodborne pathogens, e.g. Listeria
-
Ferrer-Espada R, Liu X, Goh X, Dai T.
Antimicrobial Blue Light Inactivation of Polymicrobial Biofilms. Front Microbiol. 2019 Apr 9;10:721. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.00721. PMID: 31024499; PMCID: PMC6467927.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00721/full -
A. Rivera-Santiago, F. Diez-Gonzalez.
Combination of Blue Light and Chemical Sanitizers for Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes Dried Cells on Inert Surfaces. Journal of Food Protection, Volume 88, Issue 5, 22 April 2025, 100490; doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2025.100490 -
Minji Hur, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez.
Comparison of the inactivation of seven foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria under 405 nm blue light treatment in liquid media and on solid surfaces. Microbiol Spectr. 2025 May 23;13(7):e00093-25.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00093-25 -
Raquel A. Nogueira, Juan J. Rodríguez-Herrera, José Luis López-Carmona, Antonio Valero, Marta L. Cabo.
A formal analysis of Listeria monocytogenes cross-contamination dynamics in multi-species biofilms. npj Science of Food volume 9, Article number: 168 (2025).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41538-025-00535-3 -
Amaryllis Rivera-Santiago, Francisco Diez-Gonzalez
Combination of Blue Light and Chemical Sanitizers for Inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes Dried Cells on Inert Surfaces. Journal of Food Protection Volume 88, Issue 5, 22 April 2025, 100490
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfp.2025.100490
Viruses
- R. Rathnasinghe, S. Jangra, L. Miorin, M. Schotsasert, C. Yahnke, A. Garcίa-Sastre
Lighting a better future: the virucidal effects of 405 nm visible light on SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A virus. Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 19470 (2021); doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.14.435337
- M. Hessling, B. Lau and P. Vatter.
Review of Virus Inactivation by Visible Light
https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6732/9/2/113/pdf
