Laura Marcu

University of California, Davis, USA

Bringing Cancer to Light in the Operating Room

This presentation concerns the development for clinically-compatible multispectral fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) techniques and applications in surgical oncology. We will show FLIM’s potential for real-time intraoperative delineation of brain tumors and head-and-neck cancer during robotic surgery.

About the Speaker

Laura Marcu is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at the University of California at Davis. She received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering (1998) from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Since 2007, she has served also as co-director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center - Biomedical Technology Program at the UC Davis Medical Center. Her research interest is in the area of biomedical optics, with a particular focus on research for the development of label-free optical spectroscopy and imaging techniques for tissue diagnostics and image-guided interventions. Area of applications include surgical oncology, intravascular cardiovascular diagnostics, and regenerative medicine. She is an elected Fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, BMES, Optica, SPIE and NAI.

Wolfgang Drexler

Medical University Vienna, Austria

OCT in its 30's

After three decades, more than 75,000 publications and numerous companies being involved in its commercialization, this talk focuses on disruptive forward-looking innovations and key-technologies to further boost OCT performance enabling significantly enhanced medical diagnosis.

About the Speaker

Wolfgang Drexler, PhD, is a Professor of Medical Physics and the Head of the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. He spent 2 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Prior to his current position, Dr. Drexler was a Professor of Biomedical Imaging at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Dr. Drexler’s main research area is the establishment of a novel generation of optical imaging platforms with the potential to revolutionise fundamental biological research as well as medical diagnosis. Dr. Drexler has authored >190 peer-reviewed publications and >600 conference proceedings or abstracts. He is or has previously held positions as editor or co-editor of 12 books, including 2 editions of Optical Coherence Tomography: Technology and Applications. In addition, he has given >250 invited or keynote presentations since 2000 and accomplished € 16 million research grant income since 2000.

Daniel Razansky

ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Citius, altius, fortius – boosting speed, resolution, and depth in fluorescence and optoacoustic imaging

The talk focuses on the latest additions to the arsenal of fluorescence and optoacoustic techniques to enable noninvasive deep tissue imaging of rapid biological dynamics at multiple scales, from single cells to whole organisms.

About the Speaker

Daniel Razansky is Full Professor of Biomedical Imaging with double appointment at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich and the Department of Information Technologies and Electrical Engineering of ETH Zurich, where he also serves as Director of the joint Preclinical Imaging Center. He earned PhD in Biomedical Engineering (2006) and MSc in Electrical Engineering (2001) from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and did postdoctoral research at the Center for Molecular Imaging Research of the Harvard Medical School in Boston. Prior to moving to Zurich in 2019, he was Professor of Molecular Imaging Engineering at the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Center Munich. His Lab pioneered a number of imaging technologies for pre-​clinical research and clinical diagnostics successfully commercialized worldwide, among them the multi-​spectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) and hybrid optoacoustic ultrasound (OPUS). Razansky’s research has been recognized by the German Innovation Prize and multiple awards from the ERC, NIH, SNF, DFG and HFSP. He is a Founding Editor of the Photoacoustics journal and serves on Editorial Boards of a number of journals published by Springer-​Nature, Elsevier, IEEE and AAPM. He is also an elected Council Member of the European Society for Molecular Imaging (ESMI), serves on the IEEE Technical Committee on Biomedical Imaging and Image Processing and has chaired numerous international conferences of the Optica (formerly OSA), WMIS, IEEE, ESMI and IFMBE. He is also an elected Fellow of the Optica (formerly OSA) and SPIE.

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen

Vanderbilt University, USA

Near infrared autofluorescence and other label free optical techniques for intraoperative guidance of endocrine surgery

 In this presentation, the development of label free spectroscopy and imaging methods including near infrared autofluorescence for the identification of the parathyroid gland and evaluating its perfusion state during thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies will be presented. We will also discuss other ways in which optical spectroscopy and imaging can help the endocrine surgeon in patient care.  

About the Speaker

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and holds the Orrin H. Ingram Chair in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. Her research considers the development of optical techniques for clinical diagnosis and surgical guidance, particularly using Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy. She serves on the Board of Directors of SPIE, and is a Fellow of SPIE, Optica, Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. She is currently serving as SPIE's President in 2022.