About ECBO
Sponsored by OSA and SPIE, the European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO) brings together scientists, engineers and clinicians who work with optics and photonics to solve problems in medicine and biomedicine.
Submission Deadline: 5 February 2009 12:00 p.m. noon EST (17:00 GMT)
Advanced Microscopy Techniques
Conference Chairs:
Paul J. Campagnola, Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, USA
Ernst Stelzer, European Molecular Biology Lab, Germany
Gert von Bally, Medical Centre Univ. of Münster, Germany
This conference will explore the rapidly developing field of multidimensional microscopy, including confocal microscopy, nonlinear optical microscopies, light sheet based fluorescence microscopy (SPIM, DSLM) and other novel imaging modalities. Consideration will be given to the characteristics of the overall system design, as well as to topics of image formation, image recording, deconvolution in two, three or more dimensions, and digital methods of producing and displaying the resulting reconstruction. Recent innovations in multi-dimensional microscopy have a serious impact on the biological and medical fields. We hope that the broad range of relevant topics presented at this conference will encourage the interaction among instrumentation engineers, computer image analysts, and researchers in the various fields of biomedical and life science application.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Clinical and Biomedical Spectroscopy
Conference Chairs:
Irene Georgakoudi, Tufts Univ., USA
Jürgen Popp, Univ. Jena, Inst. of Photonic Technology, Germany
Katarina Svanberg, Lund Univ. Medical Laser Centre, Sweden
Spectroscopic methods have become most valuable tools for both clinical diagnostics and biomedical research applied to in vivo tissue monitoring and the investigation on the molecular scale of excised samples. In clinical diagnostics, optical spectroscopy provides detailed structural and functional information on organs, tissues and body liquids. Basic biomedical applications include the detailed investigation of tissues and cells down to the level of single molecules, helping to understand the principles of cellular and sub-cellular processes in the early transformation of normal to diseased tissue, such as when malignant tumours are developed.
The conference provides an interdisciplinary platform for physicians, physicists, biologists, chemists and related researchers in order to strengthen an integrated and holistic approach of understanding normal tissue development and the genesis of diseases in order to be able to ultimately develop new, efficient treatment modalities.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Diffuse Optical Imaging
Conference Chairs:
Rinaldo Cubeddu, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Andreas H. Hielscher, Columbia Univ., USA
The study of diffuse light imaging in tissue is providing new insight into the structural and functional properties of tissues that are not easily accessed by alternative methods. The research and development of systems that use this approach is leading to clinical prototype systems that are used in basic science and medical research. Scientific applications range from the study of cerebral physiology to cancer patho-physiology in both animals and humans. Medical applications being explored encompass detection and diagnosis of breast cancer, brain cancer, stroke, hemorrhages, brain and muscular oxygenation, peripheral vascular diseases and joint diseases. Integration of diffuse light imaging into existing clinical instrumentation is a key area of development, and combining diffuse light imaging with new contrast agents is also emerging as a major growth area.
Further improvement in these and other application areas relies on continued advancement in the theory of radiation transport through random media, in data analysis and image reconstruction algorithms, and in instrumentation design. This meeting provides a key interdisciplinary forum for engineers, physicists, mathematicians, and biomedical scientists and physicians to report on recent results, improvements, and new approaches and applications for using diffusing light to characterize the structural and functional properties of tissue.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Molecular Imaging
Conference Chairs:
Kai Licha, migenion GmbH, Germany
Charles Lin, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Emerging reporter-gene technologies and probes for fluorescence and bioluminescence in vivo imaging have enabled an unprecedented and highly versatile visualization of many fundamental tissue processes at the cellular and sub-cellular level. Likewise, advances in optical imaging technologies allow for a powerful imaging platform suitable for basic research, clinical translation and drug discovery. This is an emerging field of the imaging sciences that integrates many scientific disciplines from physics and engineering to chemistry and biotechnology and has strong potential applications in pharmacology, molecular biology and medicine. This conference aims to bring together these diverse fields of the imaging sciences and places particular emphasis on the synergies of novel imaging technology and corresponding molecular reporters in facilitating the propagation of molecular imaging to addressing important biomedical problems.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Novel Optical Instrumentation for Biomedical Applications
Conference Chairs:
Christian D. Depeursinge, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Alex Vitkin, Ontario Cancer Inst., Canada
Aside from the well-recognized avenues of biomedical optics for diagnostics, therapeutics and analytics/microscopy, a number of novel and highly promising approaches are under development. These new techniques often rely on the confluence of two or more diverse fields, drawing on their complementarity in order to overcome the inherent complexity and heterogeneity of biological tissues. Examples include photoacoustic spectroscopy, use of MRI to constrain optical tomographic reconstructions, PDT sterilization of surgical margins and the emerging role of photodiagnostics in monitoring and guiding therapies in real time (“theragnostics”). These hybrid approaches are driven by task-specific requirements of a particular application. Moreover, a number of new ideas are being investigated based on new methodologies, physical basis, instrument development, integration techniques and data analysis. This conference will present a highly interdisciplinary discussion forum of interest to instrument designers, sensor builders, basic and applied clinical researchers, and other scientists interested in exploring novel directions in biophotonics.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Optical Coherence Tomography and Coherence Techniques
Conference Chairs:
Peter E. Andersen, Technical Univ. of Denmark, Denmark
Brett Bouma, Harvard Medical School, USA
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and optical methods based on coherent light interactions with tissue are emerging medical diagnostic imaging techniques which can perform cross-sectional, three-dimensional, functional, real-time visualization of biological microstructure in situ.
This conference provides an interdisciplinary forum for topics in research and development on a physical and theoretical basis of coherent imaging including novel low-coherence interferometry and tomography techniques, extension techniques of OCT such as polarization-sensitive, Doppler, phase contrast, spectroscopic and second harmonic OCT. In addition, this conference will also focus on the development of new light sources, new probes, new detection schemes and new signal processing algorithms for coherent imaging. Applications of coherent optical techniques for morphological as well as functional assessment in different living tissues and phantoms in various medical fields are also covered.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Therapeutic Laser Applications and Laser-Tissue Interactions
Conference Chairs:
Ronald Sroka, Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München, Germany
Lothar Lilge, Univ. Health Network, PMH/Ontario Cancer Inst., Canada
Medical laser application is a broad area for research and development with the vision of improving clinical therapeutic procedures or extending into new fields for lasers in medical use. Novel biomedical laser applications are emerging due to the advent of new types of lasers that widen the possible spectrum of laser-tissue interactions (ultrashort-pulsed lasers, fiber lasers, diode lasers, diode pumped solid-state lasers). These lasers, together with advanced targeting techniques, can be used to improve the target-oriented precise application of laser radiation in clinical practice. Laser light applications include the whole range of non-thermal to thermal reactions up to ionization effects either on the macro-scale, e.g. soft tissue smoothing without ablation, or on the micro scale, e.g. selective retina therapy, to the nano-scale for surgery within cells, as well as short-pulsed laser applications to treat soft and hard tissue in patients. In addition, new laser light application techniques as well as innovative medical keyhole techniques such as laser-assisted NOTES (Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery) are under investigation.
Highly sophisticated targeting strategies including endogenous or applied chromophores as well as conjugation of chromophores or nanoparticles with antibodies pave the way for new treatment modalities. Furthermore, combination therapies such as the synergetic use of photodynamic therapy and immunomodulatory or antiseptics are encouraging new fields for research and clinical studies.
Improved understanding of biological reactions triggered by laser radiation interacting with natural absorbing sites, targeting molecules, photosensitizers or nanoparticles will lead to progress in the creation of minimally invasive clinical laser light applications or assist in elucidating particular immunological responses from the tissue.
Theoretical considerations and modeling of laser light distribution in tissue with subsequent energy transfer and tissue interactions constitute a solid basis for therapy planning in patients, particularly if combined by improved light delivery and monitoring techniques.
This conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for scientists, engineers, research-oriented medical specialists and medical doctors using laser-assisted treatment modalities to discuss the progress in all these topics. The forum joins presentations from in vitro investigations up to clinical studies of new laser light irradiance in the range of 10û3–1018 Wcm–2 to lead to actual clinical and medical questions where laser-assisted techniques can play an important role in future.
Submission topic categories to be considered
Advancing the Science and Technology of Light
