BioMed 2012 Day 1: Recap

The first day of BioMed 2012 is officially in the history books and I don't think it would be too much to call it a smashing success so far.  With three parallel tracts and a large number of posters, I clearly couldn't get to everything, but some highlights in my opinion include:

1) Three-photon imaging work by a group at Cornell that produces 10,000x higher signal to background ratio than two photon imaging (BSu2B.2). This technique allows for in vivo imaging neurons up to 1 mm below the cortical surface by taking advantage of the 1700 nm spectral window.

2) A poster showing the development of methods to measure simultaneous optical and electrical measurements of nuerovascular coupling in conscious rats (BSu3A.90). Apparently asking the animals nicely to hold still does not work.

3) Second-harmonic generation imaging microscopy capable of quantifying changes in structure and composition of collagen in the extracellular matrix by a group in Wisconsin (BSu4B.1). These methods can be used to characterize changes in the extra-cellular matrix in a variety of cancers.

Tomorrow starts with a plenary from a Nobel Prize winner (George Smith), followed by sessions on molecular probes, photoacoustic tomography, and brain signals.  I have been reassured there will be plenty of coffee again tomorrow during the breaks for those needing a little extra help to keep going...

BioMed 2012 Day 1: Opening Ceremonies

BioMed 2012 has officially begun! I was kind of hoping for a ceremony with either drums or a flaming arrow, but the opening remarks were a great introduction and highlighted the fact that conference submissions have more than doubled from 200 in 1994 to more than 450 this year. The opening was then followed by plenary presentations by Drs. Lihong Wang and Mathias Fink. Dr. Wang highlighted the large number of applications photoacoustic tomography can be used to study (including sentinal lymph node imaging, oxygenation levels of single red blood cells, and targeted gold nanocages that can also release drugs once localized to a tumor), while Dr. Fink gave a technical overview of ultrasonic time-reversal methods and its applications in detecting microcalcifications, mapping soft tissue elasticity, and imaging seizures in the brains of a rat model of epilepsy.

Talks later this morning will focus on brain imaging, novel fluorescent contrast, and special techniques for digital holography, followed by a poster session and afternoon presentations.

I also want to thank the conference organizers for deciding against holding the conference outside since it's been raining all day and does not look to be letting up anytime soon. Hopefully the hotel restaurant can handle a large crowd because I'm not sure how many of us will be brave enough to go outside in this weather to get lunch off-site...

Bienvenido a Miami!

While Chi-Town's got it goin' on and NY doesn't sleep, Miami is going to be bringing the heat this next week for the optics community. (Or will it rain on our parade?) Will the media coverage for the conference rival that of the Panther's hockey loss?  Did Lebron eventually decide to to join the Heat because of BioMed 2012? Will the new Dolphins draft pick (and orthopedic surgeon in training) attend a few of the plenaries?  Who knows? All that is certain is that I'm going to enjoy the sun, savor Miami's strong Cuban heritage through its culinary specialties and learn about the most recent advancements in biomedical optics.  Hope everyone is excited and I am looking forward to meeting other optics folks in Florida!

Using Light to Make Sound

Being somewhat new to the optics fields, I only recently learned about photoacoustic imaging and how it works. In short, light can provide great tissue contrast, but the scattering of photons means they do not travel in a straight line. This makes imaging that relies solely on photons limited to depths within the optical diffusion limit (roughly 1 mm in the skin). Conversely, ultrasound imaging can penetrate tissue more deeply, but has poor contrast and speckle artifacts. Thus, investigators such as Lihong Wang use an imaging method that optimizes the photoacoustic effect where pulsed laser light can generate a rapid rise in temperature deep within tissue, inducing emission of ultrasound waves from the subsequent thermoelastic expansion. This combination of optical and ultrasound technology gives new meaning to the term "multi-modality imaging" and has a variety of applications, including the ability to define the boundaries in skin cancer. Dr. Wang's plenary at BioMed 2012 on how photoacoustic tomography uses ultrasound to break through the optical diffusion limit will take place on Sunday, April 29th, from 8-9:30am in room Symphony I & II.

Making the Most of Your Time at BioMed 2012

The BioMed 2012 Meeting website has recently added a link to a personal itinerary planner.  I have already put together a rough schedule and found it very useful as a way to search for collaborators, friends, and topics that are of interest.  Plus, once you have it put together, your itinerary can be printed, added to your calendar, or exported to Excel.  Including the short abstracts in the schedule will also surely help me remember what each talk or poster is about the day of.  If you are anything like me and enjoy hopping between sessions, the itinerary planner is a great tool to help!

Tupac Lives?

The Twittersphere has been abuzz about a recent performance at Coachella, the annual three-day music and arts festival in California.  A "virtual rendition" of the late Tupac Shakur was seen onstage rapping and greeting the audience, many of whom were blown away by what the media has begun calling a "Tupac hologram."  The only problem is that, while impressive, the special effect was not in fact a hologram.  As described in this article, the optical illusion was actually a technique known as "Pepper's Ghost," a trick first described in the 16th century.  While many in the audience seemed to think they were seeing a something akin to Princess Leia's plea for help, this illusion can actually be created with a hidden room, large piece of glass, and digital projector.  Those working on advancing digital holography will have to spread the word that real holograms are even more impressive!

Will we see a similar "virtual performance" in Miami?  Only time will tell...

The Feld Award

The OSA Foundation recently established the Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award in honor of Professor Feld’s fundamental contributions to laser science and applied physics. While the award is going to be featured at this year's BioMed meeting, it will not be given until 2013 to recognize an individual for innovative and influential contributions to the field of biophotonics.

Professor Feld, who passed away in 2010 after an eight-year struggle with multiple myeloma, was the director of the MIT George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory. His research spanned a large variety of topics, including atomic spectroscopy, laser-nuclear interactions, and radiative processes. He made the first observation of superradiance in 1973,  demonstrated suppressed spontaneous emission and radiative level shifts in an open optical resonator in the 1980s, and developed a single atom laser in 1994.

All of those achievements are impressive, but I was especially intrugued by Professor Feld's ability to incorporate his passion for karate into his love for physics.  Edmund Bertschinger, the head of MIT’s Department of Physics said, "Michael delighted in illustrating the physics of karate with classroom demonstrations like breaking a wooden board with a swift blow. And when Michael stopped advancing at the brown belt, he encouraged his sons to persist to obtain black belts, showing that the true master is the one who helps others to achieve their best.” Board breaking during lectures would certainly make force demonstrations more interesting, and I wonder if he ever used the "wax on, wax off" lesson with any of his advisees.

Nominations for the 2013 award are now being accepted, and for those who'd like to make a contribution to endow the award, visit the OSA Foundation to donate online.

The Top Three Things I'm Excited to Eat in Miami...

1) Hamakyu and spicy tuna rolls from Tony Chan's Water Club. Close to the Hilton, this place is supposed to have great waterfront views, high quality fish, and floor-to-ceiling windows into the kitchen letting patrons watch as each dish is prepared.  The website suggests customers could learn a thing or two if they watch carefully, but I'll likely leave sushi up to the experts.

2) Bolognese with home-made rigatoni, hard boiled egg, and pecorino romano cheese at Bin 18. Apparently this place decided tables might be too expensive, so they went with concrete slabs over wine barrels - supposedly ideal for sharing.  As long as chef-owner Alfredo Patino still provides a fork, I should be able to deal with it.

3) Chicken tandoori with a side of garlic naan and a salted lassi at the Bengal Modern Indian Cuisine.  This place has two levels of seating, is a quarter mile from the conference, and offers a supposedly amazing 3 course daily lunch for $13.  Reviews online say that if you ask for extra spicy, it might your tongue want to jump out of your mouth.

Which one will be the best?  You'll have to wait for "The Decision" at the end of the conference...

Cell Motility, Digital Holography, and Drug Screening

I recently spoke with David Nolte, a Professor in Physics at Purdue University, about his work using holographic optical coherence imaging (HOCI) to quantify subcellular motion from deep within living tissue. His group has developed this relatively new imaging technique that uses cellular motility as a novel contrast agent. Data can be obtained from up to 1mm within tissue - a range most microscopic imaging methods cannot reach. I was impressed that this technique can be directly applied to a variety of biomedical applications, including monitoring the cytoskeletal response to drug candidates. Dr. Nolte's talk on Sunday (4/29) from 3:30-4:00pm in Concerto D is titled "Digital Holography of Cellular Motions in Live Tissue" and should be of great interest to those interested in digital holography and its use in drug screening.

Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy in Orange County

I met Dr. Bruce Tromberg a few years ago during a visit I made to UC Irvine. Besides being impressed with the gorgeous campus in Southern California, I was able to see his laboratory and meet with several of the students, postdocs, and research technicians he worked with. As an expert in diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS), he told me how the use of multiple optical contrast elements such as absorption, scattering, fluorescence, and speckle can be used to measure various optical and physiological properties such as blood flow, vascular density, extracellular matrix composition, and cellular metabolism. Specifically, DOS uses spatially- and temporally-modulated sources and model-based analyses to produce dynamic in vivo functional imaging with variable spatial localization. His clinical work has focused on the use of broadband DOS to measure breast tumor metabolism with sufficient sensitivity for cancer detection and therapeutic drug monitoring. Broadband spatial frequency-domain imaging is also used in animal models to dynamically map intrinsic brain signals, monitor the efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents, and form depth-resolved tomographic images of fluorescence and hemodynamics. Dr. Tromberg is giving a plenary talk at 8am on Tuesday (5/1) that is titled, "Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy: Technology Development and Clinical Translation." It should be a great talk for those interested in the current and future role of diffuse optics in medical imaging!