Biomedical keynotes highlight top growth areas at Laser World of Photonics 2011

Laser World of Photonics 2011 definitely seemed larger than the 2009 event--and the final tally confirmed that indeed it was. The top two growth areas were medical technology and biophotonics, according to Messe Muenchen GmbH; this year’s conference and exhibition attracted not only 8% more visitors (for a total of 27,500) but also a record number of exhibitors (1100).

The event celebrated the 20th anniversary of optical coherence tomography (OCT) with a CLEO Europe and European Conference on Biomedical Optics (ECBO) co-sponsored technology and applications tutorial by OCT pioneer Jim Fujimoto. The MIT professor drew a standing-room-only crowd; so did the two ECBO plenary talks. One, by another OCT powerhouse, Wolfgang Drexler of the Medical University of Wein (Austria), whisked audience members through OCT history highlights, and painted an enthusiastic picture of future technology and market development.

The other ECBO plenary featured Prof. Mary-Ann Mycek of the University of Michigan (USA) discussing an optical spectroscopy technique that offers exciting promise for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

Ready for Laser World of Photonics 2011

Laser World of Photonics Congress, a biennial event, starts on May 23rd in Munich, Germany, and I'll be reporting from the show. A major focus of this huge expo and conference is biophotonics, as I discovered when I attended in 2009. One thing I enjoyed during that visit was the series of application panels in the exhibit hall that were offered in addition to the conference. Laser World of Photonics will offer these panels again this year, bringing technology developers together with clinicians for exploration of real needs that technology can help address. The life sciences panels will cover the application of biophotonics in four general areas:

+ Lasers for Analytical Bioinstrumentation and Bioimaging
+ Diagnostics and Therapy in Medicine
+ Visions for Future Diagnostics—Oncology
+ Visions for Future Diagnostics—Infectious Diseases

A number of exciting announcements emerged from the 2009 Laser World of Photonics Congress, including scientific CMOS (sCMOS), which has since hit the market in the form of cameras from Andor, Cooke, and Hamamatsu. Stay tuned to BioOptics World for news from the 2011 event!