Photonics for a Better World

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Khushi Vyas , Outreach Coordinator for the SPIE Student Chapter at Imperial College London , was among students at the biophotonics and imaging graduate summer school 15-20 June at the National Biophotonics Imaging Platform Ireland (NBIPI), National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. In the second of two posts, Khushi describes the experience of attending the school from a personal perspective. Wisely -- and happily -- BIGSS organizers ensure that the week is not all work and no play; above attendees get to know each other better over refreshments after hours. Galway -- the cultural city of Ireland with Bohemian accents -- played host to the fifth annual Biophotonics and Imaging Summer School (BIGSS) , organized by the NUI Galway Applied Optics group and chaired by Professor Martin Leahy, who also leads the NBIPI. A mixed crowd, from first-timers to all-timers, comprised this year’s approximately 50 students who not only attended the technical ...

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Khushi Vyas , Outreach Coordinator for the SPIE Student Chapter at Imperial College London , was among students at the biophotonics and imaging graduate summer school 15-20 June at the National Biophotonics Imaging Platform Ireland (NBIPI), National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway. The first of two posts filed by Khushi describes the topics and trends discussed during the school. BIGSS participants enjoyed an energizing week in Galway. The recent fifth annual Biophotonics and Imaging Graduate Summer School (BIGSS) offered a great platform for multidisciplinary learning in biophotonics and fostered communication across several disciplines. Students went home with new ideas, streamlined directions for research, new contacts, and the motivation to contribute towards finding solutions for unmet clinical needs. Participants included approximately 50 graduate students and early-career professionals and seven distinguished guest speakers working ...

What photonics enables the clinician to see: Fig. 2 H&E histology, OCT B-scan images, and three-dimensional (3-D)OCT volume render for (a–c) rectal and (d–f) duodenal biopsies. Bar=0.2  mm. From “Spatially resolved optical and ultrastructural properties of colorectal and pancreatic field carcinogenesis observed by inverse spectroscopic optical coherence tomography,” Journal of Biomedical Optics 19(3), 036013 (Mar 18, 2014). Having a colonoscopy? If you're 50 or older, is there really a question? No question at all -- if you have the means to go in for a colonoscopy, do so. The optics-and-photonics-enabled technology could save your life. So say the results of recent research into the effectiveness of the endoscopic inspection of the colon as a means of detecting and removing cancerous or potentially dangerous growths, reports optics.org on an analysis of clinic data from the American Cancer Society (ACS). In the USA, say ACS authors in the journal CA , colo...

Records are broken, new tricks are introduced, new stars step onto the world stage -- there is a lot of inspiration generated when the Olympic Games are on. Feats of athleticism are being demonstrated that were not imagined to be possible, and possibly not even imagined, as recently as 10 years ago. It’s the same with photonics -- you can decide whether it is as flashy or as exciting as the Olympic Games. But feats are being demonstrated that were not possible until now, by people we may or may not have heard of before. And the results are definitely life-changing, for more than just those who perform them. For example, in separate talks at SPIE Photonics West last month, Michal Lipson of Cornell University and Ashok Krishnamoorthy of Oracle described new tricks with light that could help solve one of the most profound problems facing our increasingly digitally plugged-in world: data storage capacity, or more precisely, the projected lack of it sometime in the next 5 or ...

Laura Stachel, at right, demonstrates the WE CARE Solar Suitcase for a healthcare colleague. A “Solar Suitcase” developed by an obstetrician in California is providing a source of light for healthcare clinics that face chronic power shortages in developing countries, notes an article in the latest issue of SPIE Professional magazine . In 2008, California-based obstetrician Laura Stachel traveled to Nigeria for doctoral studies. At the time, Nigeria had one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. As she was observing an emergency Caesarean section at a state hospital, the lights suddenly went out. Stachel was surprised by the nonchalant attitude of the staff for whom this was a common occurrence. The procedure was completed by the light of Stachel’s flashlight. Stachel learned that power outages are common in African hospitals, and many clinics are without any electricity altogether. Midwives in Nigeria have long resorted to using kerosene lanterns, candles,...

Biomarkers are getting a lot of attention lately as a means of monitoring health and diagnosing disease, and it’s no surprise that photonics-based sensing techniques are bringing them into the spotlight. A project named BILOBA is a collaboration funded by the European Commission through its Seventh Framework Programme. The acronym is an abbreviation of “Bloch electromagnetic surface wave bio-sensors for early cancer diagnosis”(!) BILOBA plans to develop and pre-clinically validate a multifunctional point-of-care platform that is capable of performing real-time cancer biomarker detection in a tandem configuration. Such configuration will utilize label-free detection based on the resonance shift, and the spectral analysis of enhanced fluorescence emitted by biomolecules immobilized on the surface. Utilizing both labeled and label-free analysis on the same sensor system can increase the sensitivity and reliability of optically read out surface-bound assays. The well-established optic...

(SPIE Member Jijo Ulahannan , assistant professor at Government College Kasaragod in India, attended the biophotonics and imaging graduate summer school earlier this month at the National University of Ireland [NUI] Galway. Speakers composed a “who’s who” list of many of the top names in the field. Now back at home, Jijo filed this guest blog based on his notes.) A week of high-end motivation, face-to-face interaction with challenging problems of the field, infused with the serene beauty of Irish countryside and the fun and excitement of Euro 2012: that’s the best way to summarize the recently concluded Biophotonics and Imaging Graduate Summer School (BIGSS) 2012 . The school was attended by 22 researchers from all over the world and included highly motivating talks, technical presentations, live demonstrations and a highly competitive poster session. The summer school began on a fine sunny evening with a welcome party hosted by Professor Martin Leahy who heads the National ...

Remote sensing technologies provide solutions to numerous and varied problems around the world. Here are six recent applications: How can a remote yet vital wetland be monitored? Problem: The socio-economically vital Sudd wetland in southern Sudan’s Nile River swamps is threatened by overgrazing and by loss of vegetation during the wet season. But its remoteness and inaccessibility due to civil war prevents field studies. Solution: Using geospatial data-authoring software to quantify wetland cover changes, researchers from Ain Shams University in Cairo developed a process to interpret Landsat-generated imagery, map land-cover types and compare the images to produce change-detection maps. Read more in the team’s article in the SPIE Newsroom .  What happens to land stability after coal is mined? Problem: Extracting coal from underground mines generally leads to subsidence of the overlaying land within days or sometimes years. Local governments need information about land s...

What’s in a name? The crew at Photonics Media obviously know the value of the right words. “Light Matters” is an excellent name for their video series on photonics news, and their tagline -- “It’s only five minutes to enlightment” -- is great as well. So my colleagues and I were particularly pleased to read Group Publisher Karen Newman’s comments about the name of the annually organized pavilion in the SPIE Optics + Photonics exhibition that celebrates the contributions of the field. It’s also our blog’s name, of course, and is shared by a series in the SPIE Professional member magazine -- newly open access starting this month. In her editorial published yesterday, Karen wrote, “Photonics for a Better World. I like the sound of that. I think it could be a great tag line for the industry.” We couldn’t agree more, and urge you to read Karen’s write-up about the life-enhancing photonics applications featured in the pavilion last August in San Diego. Sustainable energy, earlier disea...

What a great idea! Aydogan Ozcan's group at University of California, Los Angeles, have developed a way to use the cell phone in a lens-free computational microscopy system utilizing digital inline holography to create on-chip imagers. The technique enables in-the-field testing for diseases such as malaria from remote locations, enabling faster and more universal diagnosis and thereby helping to save more lives. In addition to Aydogan's interview last month with SPIE Newsroom in August 2011, more information from the group about the project and the technology is at these links: Ozcan Research Group website Handheld, lensless microscope identifies malaria parasites (SPIE Newsroom article from Ozcan lab) Smart technology for global access to healthcare (SPIE Newsroom article by Aydogan Ozcan)

( Michelle Xu is a PhD-graduate from the University of Toronto, where she worked to engineer diagnostic hand-held devices using nano-grating surface plasmon sensors and nano-pillar photonics crystal sensors to enable the early detection of cancer. Knowing that her device could identify high-risk individuals and help prevent disease, she was motivated to commercialize her research. To support her efforts, Newport and SPIE sponsored her attendance at the Biomedical Engineering Entrepreneurship Acadamy (BMEA) held at the University of California, Davis earlier this month. Below are her reflections on the experience. Her colleague Chang Won will be writing about his experience at the academy next week!) The number one lesson I learned at the BMEA was that in academia, we start by solving a problem and then search for needs; in business planning, we start with a need, and then solve the problem. This issue of course raises the question, “Are technologies validated differently in aca...

We’re living in the Century of the Photon, and examples of the important roles the enabling technology of photonics and optics play in our lives are everywhere. For examples, start with computers and the internet. SPIE Fellow John Greivenkamp , professor of optics at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences, talks about the optical technologies inherent in those applications in this brief video. A list of 50 breakthroughs contributed by researchers at America’s national labs has been compiled in a brochure published by the U.S. Department of Energy , and posted in a PDF on their website. Among the list: From learning about photosynthesis came the ability to explore how to derive sustainable energy from the sun. An engineered particle removes arsenic from drinking water, and an ultraviolet-light system kills microbes that cause water-borne diseases. A revolution in medicine that has saved many lives with cancer-detecting nuclear imaging devices came out of ...

In the Biomedical Engineering department at Vanderbilt University, Anita Mahadevan-Jansen and other researchers are using light in the form of laser spectroscopy to locate brain cancers -- and making innovations in STEM education as well, by making stronger connections between math and optics.

Do you have ready access to clean drinking water? That isn’t something everyone around the planet can take for granted. More than a billion people do not have access to clean water, and around 1.5 million children die each year as a result of water-borne diseases. Several projects we’ve heard about recently are employing photonics technologies to change this picture and save lives. A European Union research consortium is working on a compact, low-cost photocatalytic water treatment system that uses photons from sunlight to decompose organic pollutants in water. The completed system will resemble rooftop solar panels, and will be placed on dwellings near ponds and streams with poor water quality. It will require no electricity or chemicals, so will be well-suited to developing regions – and sustainable, wherever it is installed. Funded by an EU Seventh Framework Programme grant ,the consortium includes groups from Denmark, France, Italy, Israel, Jordan, South Africa, and the UK. A...

Sabine (left) and Nadine (right at Hannover Airport en route to Ven Biophotonics ’11 is underway and two of SPIE’s Student Chapter members are participating in the summer school program. Sabine Donner and Nadine Tinne, both students pursuing their PhDs in biophotonics at the Laser Zentrum Hannovere e.V., are currently on the island of Ven in Sweden, learning about tissue optics, optical imaging and cell manipulation with lasers, among many other things. SPIE is proud to be a sponsor of this event, which brings together renowned lecturers from all over the world with promising students from this field. Nadine and Sabine are going to check back in at the end of the summer school session with additional reflections and more about what they learned, but in the meantime, here are some of their thoughts as they got ready to head to Sweden! “We are excited about getting in touch with other young scientists and expert lecturers and having the chance to discuss our work with them – ho...

Repairing brain disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain, by targeted application of light: research by the Synthetic Neurobiology Group led by Ed Boyden at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has the potential to change many lives through photonics. Boyden described his work in a new video interview for the SPIE Newsroom. Read more here: Boyden's article on 'Controlling the brain with light,' SPIE Newsroom 'Seeing the light,' MIT News 'Selective brain stimulation with light,' SPIE Newsroom

“Multidisciplinary” is a word heard often in photonics circles. It has become increasingly apt at SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing (DSS), where, in the words of Michael Eismann (Air Force Research Lab), last year’s symposium chair, you’ll see things that you won’t find anywhere else. Just a few examples -- from among 2,400 papers in the program -- illustrate the span across not only several disciplines but varied application areas as well. Cancer and brain trauma From the growing body of presentations at DSS on biomedicine and sensing technologies with health applications is a paper by Krzysztof Ptak (U.S. National Cancer Institute Center for Strategic Scientific Initiatives) on nanotechnology as a “new pipeline” for cancer diagnostics, imaging agents, and therapies (8031-63). “The National Cancer Institute has taken the bold and visionary step of recognizing that it takes a multidisciplinary approach allowing for a convergence of molecular biology, oncology, physics, chem...

Three aspiring biophotonics  entrepreneurs working on potentially life-saving techniques for detecting cancer and malaria have won some expert help in moving their ideas to market. As winners of a Biophotonics Startup Challenge at SPIE Photonics West in January, the three are being sponsored by Newport Spectra-Physics to attend the Biomedical Engineering Entrepreneurship Academy at the University of California, Davis, next summer. A cheek-swab test for lung cancer would be "a paradigm shift, in that we don't need to examine the tumor itself to determine the presence of cancer," said Hariharan Subramanian (Northwestern University) of the technique he and colleagues including Hemant Roy (North Shore University Health System) and Vadim Backman (Northwestern) have developed. Hariharan Subramanian describes for Biophotonics Startup Challenge judges the technology behind a cheek-swab test for lung cancer. A system based on total internal reflection principles that...

Conference chairs have offered more suggestions on presentations to hear at SPIE Photonics West next week. The technologies and applications in the latest recommendations differ in many ways, but all share one important commonality: they all demonstrate how versatile and powerful photonics is when it comes to gathering information about matter, in environments as disparate as inside the human body and in space. Scientists and engineers from top space organizations in Europe, Canada, and the United States will share the stage in a Tuesday evening panel discussion on MEMS for space applications . They’ll explore the advantages, challenges, and possibilities -- with reference no doubt to a joint session earlier in the day among three MOEMS-MEMS conferences with papers on possible space applications in telescopes, gyros, spectrometers, and other devices. Among papers on research in spectroscopy are a presentation in the conference on Optical Biopsy exploring Stokes shift spectroscopy ...

Are you headed for SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco later this month? Have you sorted out which papers you want to hear -- from among the 4,127 on the program? If you’d like a much shorter list to consider, here are some ideas we collected from conference chairs and others who have studied the program. While these technologies cover the full range of the four-symposium event, they are representative of all 4,000 papers in their focus on solving the challenges facing the world: They offer promise for detecting cancer in time to enable a cure, restoring vision, detecting clandestine nuclear weapons, enhancing automobile safety, improving both energy efficiency and human health with solid-state lighting, and much more. BiOS 7885-23 “OCT-guided femtosecond laser system for cataract surgery,” Daniel Palanker (Stanford Univ. School of Medicine), et al. A new technique using a femtosecond laser to break up damaged lenses before removal can make cataract surgery easier and more pr...