European Symposium on Ultrafast Laser driven Biophotonics

While maintaining quality throughput and complexity of research work have steadily increased over the last years. If it comes to experimental setup and lab infrastructure research results have been boosted by applying new combinations of available hard and software technologies. A good example is the use of DMD (Digital Micro mirror Device) as a spatial light modulator in microscopy. These DMDs had already been used for many years in display and astronomy applications. Therefore in this conference we would like to bring together scientists from different disciplines to share their experience on emerging technologies and setups. What is common is the use of Ultrafast lasers in Biophotonics.

The relatively new research area of biophotonics combines life sciences, environmental sciences and medicine with innovative optical technologies. Biophotonics encompasses all optical methods for investigating structural, functional, mechanical, biological and chemical properties of biological materials and systems. Biophotonics opens up great opportunities for basic research, biotechnology and medicine. With the help of biophotonics, it is possible, for example, to better understand the causes of diseases so that they can be prevented in the future or at least diagnosed earlier and more precisely and thus treated more effectively.

For modern biophotonics research, it is essential to continually expand the potential of established optical and spectroscopic methods, e.g. to further increase local resolution, selectivity and sensitivity. This requires the use and research of new light sources, optical components, detectors, etc. In this context, recent advances in the development of high-intensity ultra-short laser sources are particularly noteworthy, which have advanced biophotonics research by exploiting new non-linear optical phenomena. These non-linear optical phenomena have been the driving force behind many new developments in biophotonics, such as multiphoton microscopy, which is now an integral part of modern biomedical research. The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for the generation of ultra-short laser pulses illustrates the great importance of ultra-short pulse lasers.

In more than 20 scientific lectures by pioneers in their field this conference report on the manifold new possibilities that arise in biophotonics with ultra-short pulse lasers. The spectrum of topics includes non-linear imaging (e.g. SHG/THG microscopy, coherent Raman microscopy) for biomedical diagnostics, imaging of biological objects with highest spatial resolution by exploiting non-linear phenomena (e.g. STED microscopy which was awarded with the Nobel Prize to Stefan Hell) as well as wavelengths in the EUV/X-ray range and ultra-short time spectroscopy of biological systems e.g. protein folding dynamics using 2D spectroscopy to name only a few.

In the attached industry forum, representatives of industry and science will have the opportunity to interact.