Clinical and Translational Biophotonics (Translational)

07 April 2024 – 10 April 2024 | Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA

Translational focuses on the development and application of optical techniques for clinical applications.

The meeting spans clinical diagnostic, surgical guidance and therapeutic approaches that use light, with applications ranging from cancer to ophthalmology and global health. It will also include technologies for in-vivo laboratory disease research including contrast agent development and intravital microscopy in animal models. Presented work will include reports of novel and developing technologies for clinical applications, demonstrations of clinical applications and clinical trial results, with presenters encouraged to share their experiences relating to the challenges of clinical translation. Events will include panel discussions and networking forums to develop skills and expertise for clinical translation, FDA and regulatory hurdles and fundraising.

The meeting spans clinical diagnostic, surgical guidance and therapeutic approaches that use light, with applications ranging from cancer to ophthalmology and global health. It will also include technologies for in-vivo laboratory disease research including contrast agent development and intravital microscopy in animal models.

Presented work will include reports of novel and developing technologies for clinical applications, demonstrations of clinical applications and clinical trial results, with presenters encouraged to share their experiences relating to the challenges of clinical translation. Events will include panel discussions and networking forums to develop skills and expertise for clinical translation, FDA and regulatory hurdles and fundraising.

Topic Categories
 

Clinical and Translational Biophotonics (Translational)

1. Preclinical Disease Research: Techniques and Applications
   • Molecular contrast agents, probes and reporters
   • Diffuse optical spectroscopy and imaging methods for small animal models of cancer and other diseases
   • Optical imaging of the cancer microenvironment, processes and pathways
   • Targeted molecular imaging of cancer and quantitative validation methods
   • Bioluminescence techniques and applications to disease research
   • Photoacoustics in disease research
   • Intravital and multiphoton microscopy for pre-clinical disease research
2. Intravital Microscopy for Clinical Applications 
   • OCT techniques and applications in humans
   • Endomicroscopy
   • FLIM for clinical applications
   • Multimodal microscopy for clinical applications
   • Raman microscopy and endoscopy for clinical applications
   • Micro-elastography and optical biomechanics
   • Skin imaging techniques and applications
2. Clinical Spectroscopy 
   • Optical properties of disease
   • Intravital spectroscopy for clinical applications
   • Hyperspectral imaging techniques and applications in medicine
   • Modeling of light propagation and optical properties
3. Intrasurgical Imaging 
   • Optical approaches for surgical guidance
   • Intravital optical biopsy
   • Perfusion evaluation
   • Combined contrast agent / imaging approaches
   • Dynamic contrast
   • Digital staining microscopy
   • Applications in neurological surgery
   • Applications in cancer resection
4. Non-invasive Optical Imaging for Disease Applications 
   • Tomography approaches for clinical applications
   • Multi-modal imaging (e.g., combined with x-ray, MRI, ultrasound)
   • Photoacoustic techniques and applications in the clinic
5. Optical Therapeutics / Theranostics 
   • PDT, agents, techniques and applications
   • Thermal ablation
   • Agents for optical therapy
   • Laser surgery
   • Optical dosimetry
6. Clinical Translation: Biophotonics in the Clinic and Beyond 
   • Global health
   • Applications in women’s health
   • Applications in ophthalmology
   • Applications in dermatology
   • New contrast agents in the clinic
   • Testing and evaluation of new clinical modalities
   • Challenges and trajectories of clinical translation

Top

---

Committee Members

• Ioan Notingher, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, Chair
• Jessica Ramella-Roman, Florida International University, United States, Chair
• Anabela Da Silva, INSTITUT FRESNEL UMR7249 CNRS, France, Program Chair
• Narasimhan Rajaram, University of Arkansas, United States, Program Chair
• Ishan Barman, Johns Hopkins University
• Radu Boitor, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Benjamin Gardner, Unvieristy of Exeter, United Kingdom
• V. N. Du Le, University of Alabama in Huntsville, United States
• Fiona Lyng, Technological University Dublin, Ireland
• Srivalleesha Mallidi, Tufts University, United States
• Amaan Mazhar, Modulim, United States
• Bruno Montcel, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
• Jenna Mueller, University of Maryland at College Park, United States
• Ute Neugebauer, Center for Sepsis Control and Care Jena , Germany
• Christine O'Brien, Washington University in St Louis, United States
• Francesca Palombo, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
• Philippe Rizo, Fluoptics, France
• Rolf Saager, Linköping University, Sweden
• Dustin Shipp, Utah Valley University, United States
• Andreas Velten, University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States
• Alexis Vrignaud, DeepColor SAS, France
• Alex Walsh, Texas A&M University, United States
• Udo Weigel, HemoPhotonics SL, Spain
• Sixian You, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

 

Top

---

Plenary Speakers

 

Dr. Irina Larina

Baylor College of Medicine, USA
Dynamic OCT for In Vivo Investigation of the Fallopian Tube Physiology: Eggs, Sperm and Cilia

Sarah Bohndiek

University of Cambridge, UK
Harnessing the Power of Spectroscopy in Early Cancer Detection

Gerwin Puppels

Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Raman Spectroscopy: Translation to the Clinic

Samuel Achilefu

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), USA

Top

---

Invited Speakers

• Radu Boitor, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
   
• Frederic Leblond, Polytechnique Montréal, Canada
  Macroscopic Inelastic Scattering Imaging Techniques for Intraoperative Margins Assessment in Surgical Oncology  
   
• Srivalleesha Mallidi, Tufts University, United States
   
• Laura Marcu, University of California Davis, United States
  Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging in Robotic Surgery  
   
• Christine O'Brien, Washington University in St Louis, United States
   
• Aydogan Ozcan, University of California Los Angeles, United States
   
• Ashwin Parthasarathy, University of South Florida, United States
   
• Susanna Tagliabue, ICFO -Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, Spain
  Hybrid Diffuse Optical Monitoring Based Study of Cerebral Autoregulation Indices in Hyperventilation Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury Management  
   
• Paola Taroni, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
   
• Pablo Valdes, UTMB Health, United States
  Lighting Up the Brain: Neurosurgical Technologies for Imaging Brain Structure and Function  
   
• Caigang Zhu, University of Kentucky, United States

Top

---

 Industry Sessions
 

Biophotonics Industry Keynote Speaker: Julia Eng

Photonics in Like Sciences: Connecting Laboratories, Instruments and Consumers with Innovative Solutions

Julie Sheridan Eng was named Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Coherent in 2022.  Prior to becoming CTO, Dr. Eng served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Coherent/II-VI’s Optoelectronic Devices and Modules Business Unit. Prior to joining II-VI through the II-VI acquisition of Finisar, Dr. Eng worked at Finisar, serving most recently as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Finisar’s 3D Sensing Business Unit, and prior to that, as Executive Vice President of Datacom Engineering.  Prior to joining Finisar, Dr. Eng was part of AT&T/Lucent/Agere, where she managed datacom transceivers.

Dr. Eng is a Past Chair of the IEEE Committee on Women in Engineering and presently serves on the Board of Directors of Optica. She holds a BA degree in Physics from Bryn Mawr College and a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).  She earned MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 2022, she was elected Fellow of Optica for distinguished contributions to the advancement of optics and photonics.
 

Exploring the Landscape of Biophotonics: Trends, Challenges, Collaborations and Future Prospects
 

Moderator
Caroline Boudoux, CEO, Castor Optics; Professor, Polytechnique Montreal and Author

Panelists

• Michael Choma, Yale University
• Jessie Weber, Medical and Mid-infrared at Coractive
• Yasaman Soudagar, Co-Founder Neurescence Inc., Bruker Corp.
• Graham Dempsey, Quiver Bioscience
• Adam Wax, Duke University
   

Industry Networking Event

Presenters: 

• Caroline Boudoux, CEO, Castor Optics, Professor, Polytechnique Montreal, Author
  It Goes without Saying: Taking the Guesswork Out of Your PhD in Engineering
   
• Ty Olmstead, Florida Photonics Cluster, USA
  Exploring Florida's Biophotonics Ecosystem: Insights from the Florida Photonics Cluster
   

Optical Sensing and Imaging in Healthcare: Perspectives and Future Directions
 

Moderator: Kathy Beaudette, Industry Co-Chair, Castor Optics

Panelists:  

• Michael Choma, Professor, Yale University of Medicine, Theranova

• Jessie Weber, Coractive
   

Optical Imaging in Drug Development
 

Moderator: Ewa Zarnowska, Industry Co-Chair, Coherent Corp.

Panelists:

• Graham Dempsey, Founder and CSO, Quiver Bioscience
• Yasaman Soudagar, Co-Founder Neurescence Inc., Bruker Corp.

Top

---

 Industry Events

 

Women in Optics Reception

Saturday, 06 April 19:00 - 20:00

Lona Cocina

This informal networking event brings together women in biomedical optics — to meet other women in the field and discuss challenges and opportunities. All are welcome, regardless of gender. Please join Chairs Christine Hendon, Jonathan Liu and members of the Optica Biophotonics Congress committee, and meet others attending this cutting-edge congress. Share your ideas to help ensure our community and this meeting is as welcoming and inclusive as possible.
 

The Role of Standardization in Biophotonics

Sunday, 07 April 12:15 - 13:15

You’re invited to join the Optica Technical Groups for a panel discussion that will raise awareness and emphasize standardization’s role in accelerating biophotonics technology development. You will have the chance to hear thoughts from diverse stakeholders in academia, industry, standardization, and funding bodies on ways we can further standardize the field and push forward the development of biophotonics technologies.

RSVP here for this technical group event to let us know you will attend.

Moderator

• Katarzyna Komolibus, Senior Researcher in Biophotonics, Tyndall National Institute
• Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, Senior Staff Researcher, Team Leader, Tyndall National Institute

Speakers

• Sarah Bohndiek, Professor of Biomedical Physics at the University of Cambridge, UK
• Turgut Durduran, Professor and Group Leader of Medical Optics Groups at ICFO, Spain 
• Caroline Boudoux, Professor of Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Monéal, CEO, Co-Founder of Castor Optics, Canada 
• Jennifer Lynch, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA 
• Tim Quang, Staff Scientist at the Section on Biomedical Optics at the National Institutes of Health, USA

Candid Conversations: Machine Learning for Biophotonic Applications with Kivanc Kose

Monday, 08 April 12:00 - 12:45

You are invited to join the Microscopy and OCT Technical Group for an informal discussion exploring the application of machine learning in biophotonics. The technical group has invited Dr. Kivanc Kose from the Optical Imaging Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an expert in image processing, image analysis, computer vision, computational methods, and machine learning, to chat with attendees. Dr. Kose will briefly introduce the topic, and then we will open the floor to questions.

RSVP here to join us for this candid conversation.

Moderator:  Aditi Sahu, Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA;NewYork

Speaker" Kivanc Kose, Senior Research Scientist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA;NewYork
 

Congress Reception

Monday, 08 April 18:30 - 20:00

Join your peers for the congress reception. Due to high winds, the Congress Reception has moved to the Atlantic Ballroom Foyer.

Maternal Health Panel

Tuesday, 09 April 16:00 - 17:00

The panel will tackle the complex challenges in maternal health, with a primary focus on implementing technical strategies to decrease maternal mortality rates. It will scrutinize various factors influencing maternal health outcomes, such as socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, and geography. Additionally, the panel will delve into how technology and innovation can improve access to maternal health services, especially for marginalized or remote communities. Our objective is to pinpoint effective strategies and champion actionable solutions to expedite progress in maternal health, thus safeguarding the well-being of mothers and their infants across diverse regions and populations.

Moderator
Jessica Ramella-Roman, Florida International University

Speakers

• Christine O’Brien, Washington University in St Louis
• Latisha Barfield, Florida International University

[Top]