BP4L/L4H Activites 2011-2012

Biophotonics4Life
 

Summary of our activities during 2011-2012 period:

 

“(1) Organize a series of topical workshops for consortium participants with heavy emphasis on Spanish participation to show-case Spanish research on the topic”The following activities were carried out:

The Light for Health Scientific Program at ICFO (http://www.icfo.eu/research/light_for_health.php) has organised different activities during 2012 within the scope of the BP4L Project:.

 Biomedical Imaging Plenary Lectures at ICFO http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/news2.php?id=&id_news=1660&subsection=1

Biophotonics4Life-2012

On May 3, 4 and 7, highly distinguished leaders in the field of NanoBioPhtonics and Medical Imaging imparted sessions which were addressed latest advances in these areas. The invited sakers of these events were: William E. Moerner (Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, USA), Eric Betzig (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Farm Research Campus, USA), Lihong V. Wang (Optical Imaging Laboratory, Washington University, USA), Keith Lidke (Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of New Mexico, USA) and Diane Lidke (Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico – School of Medicine, USA).

Biophotonics4Life-2012BookOn June, 6 B·Debate  —an initiative of Biocat and the “la Caixa” Foundation— and the  Institute of Photonics Sciences (ICFO) held the symposium entitled “Advancement of laser for medicine” http://www.bdebate.org/en/forum/advancement-laser-medicine  in Barcelona with the aim of raising awareness of the new tools and technology with biomedical applications that involve light as a key element.

The session counted with Professor Bruce Tromberg, professor in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and director of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program of the Beckmam Laser Institute (University of California, Irvine, USA) who spoke about the present and future of photonics for medical applications. Additionally, various experts that study and work with light discussed their experience with clinical applications in different medical specializations (ophthalmology, immunology, dermatology, deontology, oncology, etc.) from photodynamic therapy through high-precision laser surgery.

The event finished up with a roundtable with all the speakers, moderated by Dr. Lluís Torner, director of ICFO.

 

 On June 29-30 2012, the 1st European STORM Workshop, first of its kind in Europe, was hosted at ICFO during a two day event. STORM is a cutting edge nanoscopic imaging technique that allows scientist to peer into biological samples with unprecedented resolution. The expertise of the Advanced Fluorescence Imaging and Biophysics (AFIB) group at ICFO in the STORM technology had led to the opening of the STORM Centre of Excellence at ICFO in 2011, in collaboration with Nikon Instruments, Europe.
The workshop, which was co-sponsored by Nikon Instruments Europe, brought together 19 researchers (mostly biologists) from across Europe with the intention of training them in this enabling technology. The program started with informative talks given by experts from Harvard University as well as the AFIB group, and continued with hands on training sessions on topics ranging from sample preparation and imaging to data analysis taught, taught by members of the AFIB group. The workshop, which was a great success, will enable biologists to become more comfortable with this cutting-edge optical microscopy tool, opening the doors for new breakthroughs in biology.

On September 21, 2013 ICFO organized the 3rd edition of the Light for Healthhttp://www.light4health-icfo.es/ in Barcelona as part of the Light for Health focus Program. This year’s event was co-located with the “24th International Conference of the Society for Medical Innovation and Technology” (SMIT 2012) in the frame of the “Catalonia: Working in Health Forum”. This year’s event focused on Lasers for Medical Treatment. The L4H2012 was composed of lectures by renowned researchers in the field of Photonics applied to different areas of applied to different areas of medical treatment covering clinical and translational research and development.. Oncology, Ophthalmology, Paediatrics and Dermatology were few of the topics that were presented in the L4H2012.

As part of the Light for Health Focus Program at ICFO, we organise the L4H Seminar series where internationally frontline scientists and experts in the fields of biomedical and  biophotonics present their latest work. The series is sponsored by Fundació Cellex Barcelona. This year’s seminars have been the following:

 

  • 18.07.2012 – ‘Focus on Synapses: Live-Cell Superresolution STED Imaging in Brain Slices’. VALENTIN NAGERL, Synaptic Plasticity and Superresolution Microscopy – AVENIR Group, Université Bordeaux 2, FRANCE http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/calendar2.php?event=1565

 

 

  • 16.05.2012 – ‘Nanometer Accuracy Targeting and Tracking of Individual Biomolecules in Living Cells and Organisms with Peptide-based Fluorescent Nanomaterials and Probes’. FABIEN PINAUD,  Molecular and Computational Biology Section, University of Southern California, UNITED STATES  – http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/calendar2.php?event=1567

 

 

  • 21.03.2012 – ‘Nanobiophotonics: Using the Nanophotonic Toolbox to Control and Study Biological Fluorophores’. CHRISTIAN BLUM, Nanobiophysics and MESA, and Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, THE NETHERLANDS http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/calendar2.php?event=1566

 

 

 

 

  • 25.01.2012 – ‘A New Light in Diagnostics of Tissue with Non-Invasive Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging’. MARTIN WOLF, Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Division of Neonatology, University Hospital, SWITZERLAND http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/calendar2.php?event=1562

 

On February, 28, in keeping with ICFO’s mission to proactively translate newly generated knowledge into new technologies and new application fields, food technology experts from IRTA- Monells were invited to participate in a technological workshop: Advanced Imaging for the food industry (http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/news2.php?id=&id_news=1616&subsection=1). The workshop content focused on imaging techniques as well as discussions of results of these techniques applied to “real samples” sent by different departments of IRTA (Institute of Agricultural Research and Technology). Discussions produced an outline of pilot studies which will test a range of imaging techniques for this specific niche market.

On November 29th-30th, we have organized a local workshop for European leaders in photonics for Neurology and Neuroscience in clinical applications. The goal of the workshop was to discuss the needs of this community for future, to establish a permanent structure (http://photonics4brain.org) and to highlight the Spanish activities in this area to the other European researchers. The result was successful and the group has been contributing white-papers to international photonics organizations such as the Photonics21 platform and the BP4L consortium.

“(2) Produce webinars or online conferences (for the BP4L members) where scientists developing biophotonics tools as well as clinicians and biomedical researchers who collaborate with them will give 30-60 minute long seminars and tutorials that will be recorded and made available publicly; “

We have produced an educational video and published a paper in American Journal of Physics – the leading outreach/educational journal for physics educators – that describes optical tomography for biomedicine at an undergraduate level. ( http://www.icfo.eu/newsroom/news2.php?id=&id_news=1770&subsection=1 )

A sub-topic on this area was the construction of a library of materials. We have expanded our biomedical/biophotonics materials greatly with a collection of books, policy materials, manuals, regulations on biosecurity, standards for laser safety and others.

The infrastructure on this topic continues to be built and is difficult to handle locally. Two of our researchers have delivered lectures that are available online:

BP4L Webinar: “Bed-side, Neuro-intensive Care (NICU) Monitoring of Cerebral Hemodynamics with Hybrid Diffuse Optics”, Turgut Durduran, Ph.D., 14 Feb 2011; http://www.biophotonicsworld.org/events/172-bp-l-webinar-bed-side-neuro-intensive-care-nicu-monitoring-of-cerebral-hemodynamics-with-hybrid-diffuse-optics-

TEDxBarcelona – Melike Lakadamyali – Capturing life’s processes with light ;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz1TDXKSTHc