Continuing its growth trend, the biomedical optics (BiOS) Expo at SPIE Photonics West is expected to be bigger than ever in 2012, with the number of exhibiting companies up 15 percent over last year. Technical topics will include enabling technologies for applications such as treatments for cancer, stroke, epilepsy and vision loss. Photonics West will be held Jan. 21-26 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco; BiOS, the largest of the event’s four symposia, will kick off the event on Saturday and Sunday (Jan. 21-22). The technical program will include nearly 1800 presentations on topics including photonic therapeutics and diagnostics; clinical technologies and systems; tissue optics, laser-tissue interaction and tissue engineering; biomedical spectroscopy, microscopy and imaging; and nano-/biophotonics. A new conference called Optical Techniques in Pulmonary Medicine has been added this year, and sessions on optogenetics have been added to the Photons and Neurons and Optical Biopsy conferences. One of the most popular sessions at the event is the BiOS Hot Topics, which be held Jan. 21 and will be facilitated by Sergio Fantini of Tufts University. (Complete list of speakers and program details) Entrepreneurs and innovation The professional development event The Entrepreneurship Start-up Challenge will return to Photonics West with biophotonics and optoelectronics divisions. This forum gives young researchers an opportunity to pitch their products or small-business startup ideas to a panel of experts and entrepreneurs. Jenoptik is joining SPIE in sponsoring this year's challenge. Top presenters will be sponsored to attend the highly rated Entrepreneurship Academy at the University of California, Davis. The 2011 Prism Awards for Photonics Innovation will be presented by SPIE and Photonics Media at a gala banquet during SPIE Photonics West. The international competition recognizes cutting-edge products that break conventional ideas, solve problems and improve life through photonics. (See this year's finalists) Ocean Optics and SPIE will present a panel of Blue Ocean open-innovation grant winners to discuss the entrepreneurial process and approaches to activities such as networking, training and planning. The Photonics West exhibition and four symposia, with a total of 4220 papers and more than 1150 exhibiting companies, will feature new product announcements and demonstrations, international pavilions from several countries, booths from photonics clusters from several US states, and the SPIE job fair. For more information, visit: www.spie.org