24-29 January, 2009 • San Jose Convention Center • San Jose, CA USA

  

Program Committee:  Sabato D'Auria, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy); Paul M. W. French, Imperial College London (United Kingdom); Ewa M. Goldys, Macquarie Univ. (Australia); Johan Hofkens, Katholieke Univ. Leuven (Belgium); Thomas Huser, UC Davis, NSF Center for Biophotonics; Gabor Laczko, Univ. of Szeged (Hungary); Maria T. Neves-Petersen, Aalborg Univ. (Denmark); Markus Sauer, Univ. Bielefeld (Germany); Ben Schuler, Univ. of Zurich (Switzerland); Benjamin Schuler, University of Zuerich; Andong Xia, Institute of Chemistry (China) Xia, Institute of Chemistry (China)

 

 

The goal of this meeting is to provide a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary forum for information exchange on ultrasensitive optical detection and spectroscopy down to the single-molecule level, and its applications in chemoanalysis, biophysics, biological and biomedical research, medical diagnostics, and microscopy. Ultrasensitive spectroscopic techniques have become an important tool in fundamental biological and biomedical research, allowing for the study of function and interaction of individual biomolecules. Improving and extending the existing arsenal of techniques for detecting and studying specific biophysical and biochemical questions on a single molecule level is of paramount interest for the biology community. Moreover, single molecule imaging turned out to be also a revolutionary tool in achieving superresolution imaging in fluorescence microscopy below Abbe's classical diffraction limit.

 

The need for ultrasensitive and specific biomedical diagnostics requires development of optical and photonic detection/sensing technologies capable of reaching the single biomolecule level. The technical challenges to rapidly and specifically detecting chemical and biological agents at minimal concentration levels are enormous and largely yet to be realized. All ultrasensitive spectroscopic and imaging techniques (optical spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, elastic scattering, Raman scattering, IR spectroscopy, terahertz spectroscopy) as well as the chemical and biological sciences themselves, are potentially critical components for a multidisciplinary approach to ultrasensitive sensing and diagnostics. This conference provides an interdisciplinary forum for spectroscopists, biochemists, engineers and users to exchange information and report their recent findings and developments in the field. Special focus is on biological and biomedical applications of these technologies that utilize recent developments in nanotechnology to push the detection limits and promote progress in fundamental biological research, superresolution imaging, diagnostics, medical sensing, and ultrasensitive chemical analysis. Contributed papers are solicited concerning, but not limited to, the following areas:

 

• novel approaches to single-molecule detection

• single-molecule spectroscopy and manipulation

• single-molecule based superresolution imaging

• ultrasensitive DNA secquencing techniques

• biomedical diagnostics

• spectroscopic techniques for chem-bio sensing

• advanced component and instrumentation development

• micro sensors for biochemical agents

• photonic materials for biochemical sensing

• microfluidic and capillary devices

• lab-on-a-chip sensing platforms

• biochip systems

• emerging technologies for first responders and clinicians

• rapid field screening technologies.