Inaugural SPIE BioPhotonics Australasia conference to shine brightly

ADELAIDE, Australia, and BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA -- Imaging technologies to decode interactions within the brain that control behavior, highly detailed 3D models of living tissues, the development of advanced fibre-optical sensors for use in nano-environments, and other leading-edge biophotonics and medical imaging topics will be advanced in featured talks at SPIE BioPhotonics Australasia, 16-19 October in Adelaide.

The event is being organised by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) together with SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Dates are 16 through 19 October, 2016 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

SPIE BioPhotonics Australasia will serve as a critical connector among the research community, policy makers, industry, and end-users, advancing the understanding, translation and application of biophotonic tools and techniques across all relevant groups and sectors, said Mark Hutchinson, CNBP Director and Professor at the University of Adelaide.

Hutchinson and Ewa Goldys, CNBP Deputy Director and Professor at Macquarie University, are serving as symposium chairs.

'Ideally collaborations will result from the early experimental ideas and discussions that take place here', Hutchinson said. 'For me, that's the exciting part: seeing interesting research get a "translational turbocharge" as commercial opportunities are spotted, and then seized and run with! By engaging early with fellow stakeholders we can be far more effective and timely in getting our light and optics based tools out to market, positively impacting society'.

SPIE BioPhotonics Australasia will provide an opportunity for a broad-ranging exploration of the use of interactions between light and biological systems, and applications of these approaches to provide advances in biomedicine and imaging, connecting people across multiple disciplines, the chairs said.

Plenary talks will include:

• Rainer Heintzmann, Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology and Institute of Physical Chemistry, 'Light-sheet based Raman imaging'
• Chris Xu, Cornell University, 'In vivo multiphoton imaging of mouse brain'
• Richard Levenson, University of California, Davis Medical Center, 'Path, present, and future'
• George Paxinos, Neuroscience Research Australia, 'The brains of humans and experimental animals'
• Brett Bouma, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, 'Advances for imaging tissue composition and microstructure with endoscopic OCT'
• Yves De Koninck, Laval University and Quebec Mental Health Institute, 'Neurophotonics challenges: From decoding molecular interactions at synapses to controlling behavior'

A highlight among several networking sessions will be an industry cocktail engagement. This event will see industry, government, and political key players and academics, explore R&D and other collaboration opportunities opening up in the exciting biophotonics space.

About SPIE

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, an educational not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering, and technology. The Society serves nearly 264,000 constituents from approximately 166 countries, offering conferences and their published proceedings, continuing education, books, journals, and the SPIE Digital Library. In 2015, SPIE provided more than $5.2 million in support of education and outreach programs. www.spie.org

About CNBP

The Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) is an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence led by the University of Adelaide, with research focused nodes also at Macquarie University and RMIT University. A $40m initiative, the CNBP is focused on developing new light-based imaging and sensing tools, that can measure the inner workings of cells, in the living body. http://cnbp.org.au/

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