Snapshots

BIOS – SPIE Photonics West

From February 2^nd–7^th the BIOS – SPIE Photonics West congress and exhibition took place in San Francisco, USA and with 20,737 visitors (more than 2% from last year), a record number of international participants was registered.

The exhibitions were also larger (1238 companies in the Photonics West Exhibition, and 224 in the BiOS Expo), and there were more papers (over 4500) in the technical program.

Technical papers were presented in four major areas: 1) biomedical optics, 2) lasers, 3) optoelectronics, and 4) micro-opto-electro-mechanical and micro-electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS-MEMS). Attendance was strong, despite some concern around US government travel funding restrictions.

BiOS symposium chair Jim Fujimoto (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) said the challenge for the community in the face of pressure on federal funds for research is of relevance. “We’re at the point now where many of the technologies that are being developed here can be translated to clinical applications and have real-world clinical impacts”, he said.

LASE symposium chair Andreas Tünnermann (Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and Friedrich-Schiller Universität Jena) said he found optimism among conference attendees from science and from industry, despite financial troubles in Europe and elsewhere. “People are looking at a bright future; they believe in what they are doing”, he said. “They are here to think about a lot of products, and to bring these products to the market.”

An ongoing theme of the conference week was the potential for the technology and the commitment on the part of researchers to “help others”, as BiOS symposium chair Rox Anderson (Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School) noted. A session on new biomedical optics technologies with life-saving potential illustrated his point (http://spie.org/x92259.xml). Among the eight talks were:

• Ernst Baumberg (Max Planck Institute) on optogenetics, a relatively new field that uses light to map and control living brain or nerve tissues, and loss of sight, stroke, and other conditions.

• Ben Potsaid (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on optical coherence tomography (OCT), a powerful optical technique for imaging through living tissue and mapping blood flow for disease diagnostics.

• Jonathan Sorger (Intuitive Surgical) on the use of robotics in surgery and their influence in reducing bleeding, chance of infection and length of hospital stay.

“Green photonics” technologies to reduce energy consumption in manufacturing, lighting, and computing received special focus, in a panel discussion by industry executives on opportunities in emerging sustainable technologies and through awards recognizing top papers in the field.

“Our attendees were very happy in San Francisco this week, because Photonics West is the best place to connect with other researchers, engineers, executives, and suppliers, discover what’s new, and develop insights and ideas that only happen when smart people come together for face-to-face conversations,” said Peter Hallett, SPIE Marketing and Industry Relations Director.

Photonics West exhibition ground (source: SPIE)

SPIE is the International Society for Optics and Photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional growth, and patent precedent. SPIE provided over $3.2 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2012 (source: SPIE).

For more information about the scientific topics please visit:

http://img.optics.org/showdaily/ShowDaily01.pdf

http://img.optics.org/showdaily/ShowDaily02.pdf

http://img.optics.org/showdaily/ShowDaily03.pdf

(08.03.2013)

Sciencestarter – First German-language crowdfunding platform for the sciences

The first German crowdfunding platform for scientists, Sciencestarter, was launched in autumn 2012.

The platform is a project of “Science in Dialogue”, a non-profit organization, whose goal is to develop new forms of scientific communication. “Scientists are continually looking at new ways to fund their research. However, most sponsors are only willing to give money, if they know what it is going to be used for. This is where Sciencestarter steps in. We offer researchers a platform on which they can present themselves”. says Katja Machill, who is responsible at Sciencestarter for communications, marketing, and project and user support. Scientists can present their project on the homepage, with photos and short videos. If within 4 weeks enough interested parties have come together to keep the project eligible, it then goes into the financing phase. The researchers then specify how much money they need and set a time frame. For this, the “all-or-nothing principle” applies: if the sum is not reached, the money is returned to the sponsors and the project is not funded. “We are not in competition with conventional funding institutions, such as the DFG”, explains Machill. “We are of particular interest to smaller projects that can be implemented quickly and easily”.

In order to receive funding, the project must meet academic standards, there are no further restrictions and researchers, students and science communicators are encouraged to apply (source: Sascha Lübbe, Berliner Zeitung of February 27, 2013, Special topic No. 49).

Detailed information can be found at:

http://www.sciencestarter.de

(08.03.2013).

Berlin universities support start-ups in their search for investors

The start-up service of the Technical University (TU) has been giving support since 2007 to Berlin students, graduates and academic staff to help them convert their ideas into a business plan. This support helps them to find work space, gives advice and also helps them to make contact with investors. Many of these start-ups will be supported under the program “EXIST-Gründerstipendium” and “EXIST-Forschungstransfer” of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). Since 2007, Berlin has been, after Bavaria, the province with the most approved applications for EXIST scholarships. Last year the TU, together with the Humboldt University (HU) took joint first place nationwide, with seven approved funding applications. The HU, with its knowledge and technology transfer company “Humboldt Innovation” has served as a focal point and service center for company founders at the university since 2005. Using the same model as the TU, start-up companies are able to work on their business ideas in founder houses on campus, so-called “spin-off zones”. “Profound”, which since 2006 has been the funding organization of the Free University (FU), has five founder houses. It will begin a start-up program in March 2013 with workshops for students to assist them with the transfer of their business ideas (source: Jutta Maier, Berliner Zeitung of March 3, 2013).

More information can be found at:

http://www.entrepreneurship.tu-berlin.de/

http://www.humboldt-innovation.de/

http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/profund/index.html

http://www.exist.de/exist-gruenderstipendium/index.php

http://www.exist.de/exist-forschungstransfer/index.php

(08.03.2013).

Canadian-German Biophotonics Graduate School

In February 2011, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) signed an agreement with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, the German Research Foundation) to strengthen collaboration between Canadian and German research communities with the aim to jointly support innovative training programs for highly qualified students and postdoctoral fellows from Canada and the Republic of Germany.

Meanwhile, there is an effort underway to create a Canadian-German Biophotonics Graduate School via a DFG-NSERC CREATE application. The German nodes will be in Erlangen (Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Jena (Institute of Photonic Technology), whereby the Canadian nodes are at Ryerson University, Toronto, the University Health Network, Toronto and Université Laval, Québec. The intention of the graduate school is to combine the German leadership in optics, with the Canadian leadership in photonics, thus providing a clear training environment permitting basic and transnational research in biophotonics.

See also:

http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Professors-Professeurs/Grants-Subs/CREATEFAQ-FONCERFAQ_eng.asp

(12.03.13)

Science journal: Detection of the Higgs boson is the top scientific achievement of 2012

The observation of an elusive sub-atomic particle known as the Higgs boson has been heralded by the journal Science as the most important scientific discovery of 2012. This particle, which was first hypothesized to exist more than 40 years ago, holds the key to explaining how other elementary particles such as electrons and quarks (those that are not made up of smaller particles) get their mass.

Aerial view of the CERN site just outside Geneva, with the Jura mountains in the background. The large circle shows the line of the LEP tunnel, 27 km in circumference, the small circle shows the SPS tunnel, 7 km in circumference. The crossed line indicates the border between France and Switzerland (source: CERN).

In addition to recognizing the detection of this particle as the “2012 Breakthrough of the Year”, Science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have identified nine other groundbreaking scientific achievements from the past year:

1. The Denisovan genome: A new technique that binds special molecules to single strands of DNA allowed researchers to sequence the complete Denisovan genome from just a fragment of bone from an ancient little finger. The genomic sequence has allowed researchers to compare Denisovans (archaic humans closely related to Neandertals) with modern humans. It also revealed that the finger bone belonged to a girl with brown eyes, brown hair, and brown skin who died in Siberia between 74,000 and 82,000 years ago.

2. Making eggs from stem cells: Japanese researchers showed that embryonic stem cells from mice could be coaxed into becoming viable egg cells. They clinched the case when the cells, fertilized by sperm in the laboratory, developed into live mouse pups born of surrogate mothers. The method requires female mice to host the developing eggs in their bodies for a time, so it falls short of scientists’ ultimate goal: deriving egg cells entirely in the laboratory. But it provides a powerful tool for studying genes and other factors that influence fertility and egg cell development.

3. Curiosity’s landing system: Though unable to test their rover’s entire landing system under Martian conditions, mission engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, safely and precisely placed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars. The 3.3-ton rover entry vehicle was too massive for traditional landings, so the team took inspiration from cranes and helicopters to create a “sky crane” landing system that dangled Curiosity, wheels deployed, at the end of three cables. The flawless landing reassured planners that NASA could someday land a second mission near an earlier rover to pick up samples collected by the rover and return them to Earth.

4. X-ray laser provides protein structure: Researchers used an X-ray laser, which shines a billion times brighter than traditional synchrotron sources, to determine the structure of an enzyme required by the Trypanosoma brucei parasite, the cause of African sleeping sickness. The advance demonstrated the potential of X-ray lasers to decipher proteins that conventional X-ray sources cannot.

5. Precision engineering of genomes: The revision and deletion of DNA in higher organisms has generally been a hit-or-miss proposition. But in 2012, a tool known as TALENs, which stands for “transcription activator-like effector nucleases”, gave researchers the ability to alter or inactivate specific genes in zebrafish, toads, livestock, and other animals – even in cells from patients with disease. This technology, along with others that are emerging, is proving to be just as effective as (and cheaper than) established gene-targeting techniques, and it may allow researchers to determine specific roles for genes and mutations in both healthy and diseased individuals.

6. Majorana fermions: The existence of Majorana fermions, particles that (among other properties) act as their own antimatter and annihilate themselves, has been debated for more than seven decades. This year, a team of physicists and chemists in the Netherlands provided the first solid evidence that such exotic matter exists in the form of quasi-particles, groups of interacting electrons that behave like single particles. The discovery has already prompted efforts to incorporate Majorana fermions into quantum computing, as scientists think “qubits” made of these mysterious particles could be more efficient at storing and processing data than the bits currently used in digital computers.

7. The ENCODE project: A decade-long study that was reported this year in more than 30 papers revealed that the human genome is more “functional” than researchers had believed. Although only 2% of the genome codes for actual proteins, the “Encyclopedia of DNA Elements” (ENCODE) project indicated that about 80% of the genome is active, helping to turn genes on or off, for example. These new details should help researchers to understand the ways in which genes are controlled and to clarify some genetic risk factors for diseases.

8. Brain-machine interfaces: The same team that had previously demonstrated how neural recordings from the brain could be used to move a cursor on a computer screen showed in 2012 that paralyzed human patients could move a mechanical arm with their minds and perform complex movements in three dimensions. The technology is still experimental – and extraordinarily expensive – but scientists are hopeful that more advanced algorithms could improve these neural prosthetics to help patients paralyzed by strokes, spinal injuries, and other conditions.

9. Neutrino mixing angle: Hundreds of researchers working on the “Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment” in China reported the last unknown parameter of a model that describes how elusive particles, known as neutrinos, morph from one type or “flavor” to another as they travel at near-light speed. The results show that neutrinos and anti-neutrinos could possibly change flavors differently and suggest that neutrino physics may someday help researchers to explain why the universe contains so much matter and so little antimatter. If physicists cannot identify new particles beyond the Higgs boson, neutrino physics could represent the future of particle physics (source: AAAS).

See also:

http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2012/1220sp_boy.shtml

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1511.full

(08.03.2013)

A light switch inside the brain – Scientists from Freiburg build a microimplant that uses a laser to control individual nerve cells

Activating and deactivating individual nerve cells in the brain is something many neuroscientists wish they could do, as it would help them to better understand how the brain works. Scientists in Freiburg and Basel, Switzerland, have developed an implant that is able to genetically modify specific nerve cells, control them with light stimuli, and measure their electrical activity all at the same time. This novel 3-in-1 tool paves the way for completely new experiments in neurobiology, also at Freiburg’s new Cluster of Excellence BrainLinks-BrainTools.

© PublicDomainPictures.net

Birthe Rubehn and her colleagues from the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) and the Bernstein Center of the University of Freiburg as well as the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel describe the prototype of their implant in the journal Lab on a Chip. They report that initial experiments in which they implanted prototypes into mice were successful: The team was able to influence the activity of nerve cells in the brain in a controlled manner by means of laser light pulses.

The team used an innovative genetic technique that brings nerve cells to change their activity by shining light of different colors onto them. In optogenetics, genes from certain species of algae are inserted into the genome of another organism, for instance a mouse. The genes lead to the inclusion of light-sensitive pores for electrically charged particles into a nerve cell’s membrane. These additional openings allow neuroscientists to control the cells’ electrical activity.

However, only the new implant from Freiburg and Basel makes this principle actually practicable. The device, at its tip only a quarter of a millimeter wide and a tenth of a millimeter thick, was constructed on the basis of polymers, special plastics whose safety for implantation into the nervous system has been proven. Contrary to probes developed so far, it is capable of injecting the substances necessary for genetic modification, emitting light for the stimulation of the nerve cells, and measuring the effect through various electrical contacts all at once. Besides optimizing the technique for serial production, the scientists want to develop a second version whose injection channel dissolves over time, reducing the implant’s size even further (source: IMTEK/University Freiburg).

See also: Rubehn B, Wolff SB, Tovote P, Lüthi A, Stieglitz T. A polymer-based neural microimplant for optogenetic applications: design and first in vivo study. Lab Chip 2013;13(4):579–88. doi: 10.1039/c2lc40874k.