NSF Awards Grant to Biophotonic Cooperative Research Center at BU, UC Davis

The National Science Foundation has awarded the Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Biophotonic Sensors and Systems at Boston University and the University of California, Davis. The IUCRC is a five-year, phase-two funding grant.

The Center for Biophotonic Sensors and Systems (CBSS) is one of 82 active IUCRCs, all of which are aimed at developing mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships among industry, academia and government. With an aim toward using photonics as an enabling technology, the focus of CBSS is to conduct research to meet the needs of industry-driven requirements for improved food and water safety, disease diagnosis, drug efficacy testing and monitoring of patient drug effectiveness.

“The IUCRCs create an energizing environment where industry experts and university researchers participate in iterative discussions on precompetitive applied research that would be carried out at the university level and holds significant commercial promise,” said John Taranto, an engineer at cooperative member Thorlabs and a member of the CBSS Industrial Advisory Board.