Biophotonics Congress 2023 Centers on Cell Labeling in Diagnostics and Superresolution Microscopy

Researchers and systems designers with expertise in techniques such as signal and image processing for biomedical optics and optical manipulation of the nervous system will converge April 24-27 at the 2023 Optica Biophotonics Congress. The event will be held in person at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, as well as virtually.

Conor Evans of Massachusetts General Hospital and Caroline Boudoux of Polytechnique Montréal will co-chair. They said the program will draw mostly from academia. The lineup of invited speakers and exhibitors will feature entrepreneurs on the cutting edge of the commercial application of optical technologies developed to detect tumor margins and provide laser ablation treatments.

A complete volumetric reconstruction of a transgenic mouse brain, imaged with high-resolution light-sheet microscopy. A topical meeting titled ‘Optics and the Brain’ will be presented at the 2023 Optica Biophotonics Congress. Courtesy of Francesco Saverio Pavone/ European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy.

Sebastian Schlücker, University of Duisburg-Essen. Courtesy of Optica.

Seok Hyun Yun, Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Courtesy of Optica.

Tayyaba Hasan, Evans’ colleague at Massachusetts General Hospital, for example, will offer a talk on image-guided therapeutics. And Roger Zemp of the University of Alberta, Canada, will discuss photoacoustic remote sensing and virtual histology.

“There’s a big emphasis at this event on translational research and helping the patient,” Evans said. “Part of that, which will be sprinkled throughout the program, will be the use of big data and machine learning in analysis.”

Boudoux said, “As the data sets have gotten bigger, machine learning has become interconnected with the technology we can employ.”

Plenary speakers will include Sebastian Schlückher of the Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen, and Seok Hyun Yun of the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Schlücker’s talk is titled “SERS-Based Biophotonics: From Nanotags to Microscopy and POCT.” In it, he will discuss the use of functionalized gold nanoparticles as labeling agents. “After an introduction to their basic physics and chemistry, applications for six-plex single-cell bioimaging and point-of-care testing with an ultrasensitive lateral-flow assay, including the design of a compact and rapid SERS [surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy] reader, are presented,” Schlücker said.

Yun’s talk is titled “Laser Particles for Single-Cell Analysis” and will cover optical barcoding of cells with microlasers.

“The talk will be about laser particles, 1 to 2 micron-size semiconductor disks that emit sharp narrowband laser lines,” he said. “We can tag cells with these particles (a few of them per cell) so that when you shine an excitation beam, the tagged cell emits several sharp laser lines. We demonstrate unique tagging up to a million cells and apply this technique to trace cells during imaging, also trace cells after imaging through flow cytometry, and align the data for each individual cell.”

Five co-located topical meetings will be presented that focus on recent innovations in biophotonics and biomedical imaging. Topics will include:

Bio-Optics: Design and Applications — on the design and fabrication of biomedical optical devices, biochips and optofluidics, and AI and optical design.

Novel Techniques in Microscopy — with subjects ranging from superresolution and computational microscopy to photoacoustics.

Optical Manipulation and Its Applications — covering areas such as single-molecule biophysics, light-activated drugs and probes, and optogenetics.

Optical Molecular Probes, Imaging, and Drug Delivery — on the imaging and sensing of biomolecular processes and pathways, genetically encodable probes, and surgical microscopes.

Optics and the Brain — covering functional near-infrared spectroscopy; vascular and metabolic monitoring; and the study of zebrafish, drosophila, and similar small organisms.

While the Biophotonics Congress is not a trade show, Boudoux said, several companies will display exhibitor booths. The companies will include Prospective Instruments, Light Conversion-USA, EKSPLA, American Elements, and Class 5 Photonics GmbH.

“When you’re at a trade show, you’re essentially going shopping,” Boudoux said. “And while that isn’t really what our event is about, we get companies that are part of some of these conversations of bringing products to market, and we have a number of companies that are part of our program committee.”

Poster sessions on the latest student research will also be held, and many of the students who attend the congress will end up working in industry, she said.

The congress sessions will be available virtually, but, according to Boudoux, most registrants plan to attend the event in person.

Evans said, “It is a great opportunity to make connections for mentoring.”

COVID-19 vaccination and mask wearing are strongly encouraged for attendees but are optional.

More information about registration can be found at www.optica.org.