Speakers Profiles
The list of confirmed speakers for the Light in Life Sciences (LILS) Conference 2009 will continue to grow. Please check this list weekly for updated speaker confirmations.
Invited speakers confirmed to present at the LILS 2009 Conference are as follows:
Speaker |
Institution |
|
| Dr. | Arjen Bader | Universiteit Utrecht,Netherlands |
| Prof. | Wolfgang Becker | Becker & Hickl GmbH, Germany |
| Prof. | David Birch | University of Strathclyde, UK |
| Dr. | Christoph Biskup | Jena University, Germany |
| A/Prof. | Filip Braet | The University of Sydney, Australia |
| A/Prof. | Robert Campbell | University of Alberta, Canada |
| Dr. | Andrew Clayton | Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Australia |
| Dr. | Martin de Jonge | Australian Synchrotron, Australia |
| Dr. | Katharina Gaus | University of New South Wales, Australia |
| A/Prof | Michelle Gee | University of Melbourne, Australia | Dr. | Vladimir Ghukasyan | National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan |
| Dr. | Michal M. Godlewski | Macquarie University, sydney | A/Prof. | Liz Harry | University of Technology, Sydney | Dr. | Rainer Heinztmann | King's College London, UK | Dr. | Will Hughes | Garvan Institute,Australia |
| Dr. | Stefan Jakobs | Max Planck Institute, Germany |
| Prof. | Anita Jones | University of Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Prof. | Aaron Lewis | Nanonics Imaging Ltd., Israel |
| Prof. | Don McNaughton | Monash University,Australia |
| Prof. | David Millar | The Scripps Institute, USA |
| Prof. | Paul Mulvaney | University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Prof. | Mutsuo Nuriya | Keio University, Japan |
| Dr. | Mike Roberts | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Prof. | Paul Robinson | Purdue University, USA |
| Prof. | Sarah Russell | Purdue University, USA |
| Prof. | Markus Sauer | University of Bielefeld, Germany |
| Prof. | Herbert Schneckenburger | Institut fur Angewandte Forschung, Germany | Prof. | Jenny Stow | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Dr. | Klaus Suhling | Kings College London, UK |
| Prof. | Leann Tilley | La Trobe University, Australia |
| Prof. | Matt Trau | University of Queensland, Australia |
| A/Prof. | Vladislav Verkhusha | Einstein College of Medicine, USA. |
| Dr. | Joerg Wiedenmann | University of Southampton, UK |
| Prof. | Tony Wilson | Oxford University, UK |
| Prof. | Paul Wiseman | McGill University, Canada |
Speakers Biographys
Dr. Arjen Bader
Universiteit Utrecht,Netherlands
Dr. Arjen Bader obtained his MSc degree in Analytical Chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. At the same university he did his PhD, that dealt with the application of high resolution fluorescence spectroscopy techniques to study microenvironments of fluorescent probes. As a post-doc, he joined the group of Prof. Hans Gerritsen at the Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands. This group is specialized in combining spectroscopic detection with fluorescence microscopy. Initially, Arjen Bader worked the development and application of fluorescence anisotropy based homo-FRET imaging methods. This was applied to study e.g. EGF receptor signaling. In recent years, he worked on multiphoton imaging of in vivo human skin. The spectral detection of autofluorescence and second harmonic generation provides insight in e.g. the metabolic activity, melanin content and elastin/collagen fibrous structures.
Dr. Wolfgang Becker
Managing Director,Becker & Hickl GmbH
Founded in 1993, Becker & Hickl have introduced a proprietary time-correlated single-photon counting principle that made TCSPC more than 100 times faster than the existing devices. Moreover, bh introduced a multi-dimensional TCSPC process that records the photons not only versus the time in the signal period, but also versus other parameters, such as experiment time, wavelength, or spatial coordinates. The bh devices are designed to record multi-dimensional photon distributions, time-resolved images, sequences of photon distributions, or multi-dimensional time-tag data. The bh TCSPC products are complemented by bh picosecond diode lasers, detector modules, multi-spectral detector assemblies, and experiment control modules. Based on these components Becker & Hickl supply their own confocal fluorescence lifetime laser scanning microscope and FLIM upgrade kits for laser scanning microscopes of various manufacturers. Moreover, bh is supplier of TCSPC modules for commercial time-domain optical tomography instruments. bh market activities include currently 5 workshops around the world and distribution of more than 1200 pages of TCSPC literature.
Wolfgang Becker co-founded the company, Becker & Hickl of Germany, in 1993. He specialises in the development of devices and applications using the time-correlated single-photon counting principle.
A number of other presentations by world-renowned scientists will be supported by Becker & Hickl GmbH to provide a wider perspective on the very latest in imaging technology. These include:
Prof. Christoph Biskup
Dr Vladimir Gukassyan
Professor Michael Roberts
Dr Klaus Suhling
PubMed Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Becker%2C+Wolfgang%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
Prof David J.S. Birch
University of Strathclyde
http://sensor.phys.strath.ac.uk/index.php?page=main
David Birch is Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. He has published over 180 journal papers, mainly in fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy. David studied physics at the Schuster Laboratories of the University of Manchester where he obtained his PhD for research on diphenylpolyene fluorescence in 1975 under the supervision of the late John B Birks. After holding a temporary lectureship at Manchester he moved into industry to work on high-resolution organic mass spectrometry with VG Micromass Ltd. He subsequently moved to Strathclyde University as a lecturer and was appointed Professor of Photophysics in 1993.
External appointments include in 1999 the Sir C V Raman Endowment Visiting Chair at the University of Madras, in 2000 a Visiting Professorship at Kyoto Institute of Technology and, from 2002, the Visiting Chair of Applied Physics at the Czech Technical University, Prague. Previously he has held research fellowships from the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is a permanent member of the International Programme Committee of the Methods and Applications of Fluorescence conference series. He serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals Measurement Science and Technology and the Journal of Biomedical Optics.
In 1977 he co-founded IBH Ltd, one of the first physics spin-off companies in Scotland. Manufacturing in Glasgow the company has grown to be a world-leader in time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) fluorescence lifetime systems and in 2003 joined the Horiba Jobin Yvon Group. David is presently Vice Chairman.
David is co-founder of the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Molecular Nanometrology and Femtosecond Research Centre. He is principal investigator in the £5M EPSRC Science and Innovation award “Nanometrology for Molecular Science, Medicine and Manufacture.” His present research interests include fluorescence studies of molecular dynamics and structure down to the single molecule level, nanoparticle metrology, and metabolic sensing.
Prof. Christoph Biskup
Biomolecular Photonics group,University Hospital Jena
http://www.photonik.uniklinikum-jena.de
Christoph Biskup studied medicine and chemistry at the University of Cologne. He is now heading the Biomolecular Photonics group at the University Hospital in Jena.
The research interest of his group lies at the interface between chemistry, physics and biological sciences. Both, physics and chemistry can provide perfect tools to study biomolecules and biological systems. Especially fluorescence methods are able to provide a wealth of information about living cells. One aim of the group is to develop and apply techniques that are capable to record fluorescence data with a high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. The techniques can be used to disentangle the contributions of various fluorophores to the overall fluorescence signal. When applied to Förster energy transfer (FRET) measurements the technique can be used to record donor and acceptor fluorescence decays simultaneously.
Together with the Institute of Physiology the Biomolecular Photonics group tries to combine fluorescence measurements with other techniques such as the patch-clamp technique. When applied to receptor channels this combination is able to study both binding of the ligand and activation of the channel simultaneously. Global analysis of the data can help to understand more about the mechanisms underlying the gating process.
Another aim of the Biomolecular Photonics group is to develop nanosensors that can be used to determine the concentration of ions and biomolecules in cells and living tissues.
Together with our cooperating partners we try to apply these techniques to living cells and tissues. Our hope is that these methods will help to understand both physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms on the molecular level and will help to reveal some secrets about the hidden life of cells.
A/Prof. Filip Braet
The University of Sydney
http://www.emu.usyd.edu.au/about/staff/braet.shtml
Filip is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis which is based in the Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) of The University of Sydney, and Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences, Charles Sturt University. He has 15 years’ experience as a research cell biologist and histologist, specialising in the use of microscopy and fine-structure techniques to explore structure-function relationships of hepatic sinusoidal- and colorectal cancer cells.
Following undergraduate, honours and masters studies in medical technology and biomedical sciences, he began a doctorate on the ultrastructure of the liver endothelium in 1992 at the Free University of Brussels. This work was awarded the “Scholar in Vascular Biology” in 1999 by the State University of New York, the “Ignace Vanderschueren Price for Biomedicine” by the Free University of Brussels in 2001 and the “Japan Association for the Advancement of Medical Equipment Award” in 2006 & 2008. In 2002, he was appointed a Visiting Professor of Life Sciences at his alma mater; a year later, he joined the Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, University Ghent as supervisor of the microscopy core facilities and continued his research activities in the areas of multidimensional correlative imaging, liver biology and pathobiology, colorectal cancer and transendothelial transport mechanisms. To date, he has successfully supervised 11 postgraduate research students, and is currently supervisor of three PhD students and associate supervisor of another three.
A/Prof. Braet has 79 PubMed-indexed publications with more than 1300 citations and an h-index of 19. He has presented 76 international talks, contributed 9 invited review papers about his work. Filip also has established an international reputation for pionering several important, novel concepts and techniques about live cell imaging using atomic force microscope probing systems. To date, he has 32 publications directly related to the subcellular dynamics of various cell types as probed by atomic force microscopy, and has presented 23 international talks about scanning probing techniques.
He also has made significant contributions during his entire career in collecting and leading external and internal funds for major equipment. He followed-up the installation and implementation of the TopoMetrix atomic force microscope (1997), the Leica confocal laser microscope (1999), the Tecnai 10 transmission electron microscope (2001) and the XL-20 scanning electron microscope (2002) at the Free University of Brussels; the Leica multidimensional workstation for live cell imaging (2003) at the University Ghent; and lately the advanced multispectral plate reader (2005), the F.E.I. Vitrobot (2006), the Ntegra near field scanning optical microscope (2006), two 200 kV cryo (FEG) transmission electron microscopes (2007) and three high-end multidimensional light/laser live cell imaging platforms (2008) at the University of Sydney.
Braet F, Geerts WJ. Foreword to the themed issue on correlative microscopy. J Microsc 2009: 235;239-240 & Braet F, Ratinac K. Creating next-generation microscopists: structural and molecular biology at the crossroads. J Cell Mol Med 2007:11;759-763.
Please follow this link for publication list
A/Prof. Robert E Campbell
University of Alberta
http://www.chem.ualberta.ca/faculty_staff/faculty/campbell.html
Dr Campbell holds a Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry
at the University of Alberta, Department of Chemistry.
Dr. Campbell research is focused on the invention and optimization of tools that allow researchers to peer at the inner workings of, live cells. Specifically, his group is dedicated to the development new intracellular biosensors based on one of the most important classes of proteins in biotechnology: fluorescent proteins encoded by genes cloned from marine organisms such as jellyfish and reef corals. These biosensors are used to detect the activity of enzymes in live cells and he is currently using them to help identify new inhibitors of enzymes that catalyze epigenetic modifications associated with cancer.
New fluorescent proteins originating from the Campbell lab have been licensed to biotechnology companies and others are freely distributed to any academic research group that requests them.
His accomplishments have most recently been acknowledged with an Alberta Ingenuity New Faculty Award and a Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award.
Dr. Andrew Clayton
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Dr Clayton is Head of the Cell Biophysics Laboratory at Ludwig Cancer Research Institute in Melbourne. His laboratory develops and applies innovative fluorescence microscopy techniques that enable us to see molecules in action inside living cells. The normal functioning of cells is largely under the control of a complex network of macromolecular interactions. These in turn are mediated through a limited set of physico-chemical reactions, namely conformational transition, binding, and covalent modification.
Andrew and his team devise assays that allow us to track a molecule when it adopts a particular shape or when it interacts specifically with another molecule. They are interested in where a molecule resides in the cell, where it gets relocated in response to a stimulus and how fast it gets there. They aim to relate fundamental changes in a molecules properties (shape, association and dynamics) with its mechanism of action in the cell. In turn, they want to understand how the mechanism of action of a molecule changes in cancer.
These themes are being explored to study the molecular initiation of growth-factor mediated signaling and EGF transmembrane association in model raft membranes. In addition to the specific projects undertaken by the laboratory, we are actively involved in collaborations both locally and internationally.
Selected projects focus on single molecule cell biology, fluorescence analysis of the EGF receptor signalling pathway, and probing membrane rafts using surface-selective multidimensional microscopy. Dr Clayton is also an earlier recipient of an NHMRC RD Wright Biomedical Career Development Award .
Pub Med link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=DetailsSearch&term=andrew+clayton&log$=activity
Dr. Martin de Jonge
Australian Synchrotron, Australia
Martin de Jonge is the primary contact for biological applications of the x-ray fluorescence microprobe at the Australian Synchrotron. He is developing techniques of particular application to few-cell imaging including ultrastructural imaging using differential phase contrast, fluorescence tomography, and quantitative x-ray fluorescence mapping. Martin’s experience in x-ray microscopy comes mainly from a prior stint at beamline 2-ID-B of the Advanced Photon Source in Chicago, where he effectively led development of an intermediate energy scanning x-ray fluorescence microprobe. He has since published some 17 articles relating to the use and development of x-ray microscopy. Martin is a physicist by training; his PhD thesis attracted several awards including the prestigious Chancellor’s prize ‘for excellence in a PhD thesis’ from the University of Melbourne in 2005. He also received the Jeffrey Award from the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society in 2002. Between 2005 and 2007 he was employed as a postdoctoral scientist with the X-ray Microscopy and Imaging Group at the Advanced Photon Source.
Please follow this link for publication list
A/Prof. Katharina Gaus
University of New South Wales
http://www.cvr.net.au/CVRWeb.nsf/page/CMB
Dr Katharina Gaus of the Centre for Vascular Research at the School of Medical Sciences, is the recent recipient of a prestigious five-year NHMRC/ NHF co-funded Career Development Award to study lipid rafts, which are the communication centres found in every cell of the body. Her path-breaking research contributes to an understanding of the molecular basis of diseases and could one day lead to better diagnostic tests to determine the risk of heart disease.
Her research aims to identify the principles that govern the organisation of lipids and proteins within the plasma membrane and thus define the mechanism of signal transduction processes. The overriding quest is to determine how specialised membrane domains organise signalling pathways. Because different signalling pathways share the same signalling machinery, it is the organisation of signalling cascades in time and space that establish hierarchies and, ultimately, control signalling outcomes that determine cell function in health and disease. The way forward for breakthrough science in membrane biology is to use high-resolution microscopy to measure membrane signalling events in live cells, while controlling signal triggering on a molecular level. Dr Gaus aim to link membrane organisation to cell signalling by implementing single-molecule imaging techniques and using novel cell-activating surfaces. This multidisciplinary approach encompassing cell biology, biophotonics and surface chemistry.
Dr Gaus studied physics in Heidelberg, Germany before achieving her MPhil and a PhD at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge. She was awarded a BASF scholarship from the German National Scholarship Foundation for post-doctoral research, which brought her to the Heart Research Institute in Sydney. Her major work to date, which has been cited 30 times, details her novel microscopy approach to visualize membrane structure in live cells. Her work has appeared in many high-profile publications including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA 2003), the Journal of Cell Biology, FASEB Journal and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. Katharina was selected as a ‘Fresh Scientist' and organised NSW Medical Research Week 2005. She also received a Young Tall Poppy Science Award in 2005.
In 1999, she took a position at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney as a BASF postdoctoral fellow to further her work on the cellular basis of atherosclerosis. Katharina Gaus joined the UNSW Centre for Vascular Research in 2002 as an ARC Postdoctoral Fellow.
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Gaus,+Katharina[Full+Author+Name]
A/Prof. Michelle Gee
School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne
Michelle Gee is Head of the Soft Condensed Matter labs at the University of Melbourne. Her research is focused on the investigation of molecular level behaviour of biomolecules and how they behave at the surfaces. This work involves the use of biomimetics and direct studies investigating the bacterial capsule and cell membranes using multidimensional spectroscopies and nanomechanical measurements.
External appointments include visiting chairs in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University and CNRS at Nancy. Michelle currently serves on the editorial board of Soft Materials and was elected as a member of council to the International Association of Colloid and Interface Scientists. She has a PhD from the University of Melbourne in Chemistry and Applied Mathematics and has held Post Doctoral Fellowships at the University of California Santa Barbara and Princeton University.
Dr. Vladimir Ghukasyan
National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan
Dr. Vladimir Ghukasyan has obtained his M. Sc title from the Yerevan State University, Armenia, in the field of Cytogenetics in 1998. In the same year he has entered the graduate school of the Institute of Biotechnology, Yerevan, Armenia, where he pursued the Ph.D title in the field of photodynamic therapy. The title has been awarded in 2002 for the thesis “Comparative study of the 1st and 2nd generation photosensitizers efficiency in vitro”.
In 2004 Dr. Ghukasyan has joined the group of Prof. Fu-Jen Kao, National Yang-Ming University, as a post-doctoral fellow. Since that
time his main research field were the biomedical applications of fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) with the focus on autofluorescence FLIM.
Dr Michal M. Godlewski
Macquarie University, Sydney/Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Michal M. Godlewski research focuses on cellular processes and their interactions. In his work he employs a quantitative approach to cytometry, linking imaging with quantification of the fluorescent signals. He has created several quantitative analysis methods ranging from a 3D study of intracellular patterns to a high-throughput method to analyse tissues with a complex architecture (in tissue cytometry). He is a manager of the Cytometric Laboratory in the Department of Physiological Sciences at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences which has the status of a reference laboratory to Olympus Poland. The laboratory includes a state of the art scanning cytometer, laser scanning confocal microscope and fluorescent microscopes with image analysis systems. As an expert in cytometry techniques and image analysis, he has been involved in interdisciplinary scientific collaborations with a number of institutions in Poland and overseas.
During his PhD at the Department of Physiological Sciences at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences Dr Godlewski explored the mechanisms of cell death and survival in cancer cell lines and tissues. Subsequent to that, he investigated the mechanisms of programmed cell death during the early postnatal development of intestinal mucosa using pig and rat models. In 2007, he was invited to Australia by Prof. Helena Nevalainen to help resolve the bottleneck problem in the fungal secretory pathway, funded by MQRF. He is an author or co-author of over 60 refereed articles, 4 book chapters and presented 15 invited talks.
A/Prof. Liz Harry
University of Technology, Sydney
Associate Professor Liz Harry is a principal investigator at the Institute for the Biotechnology of Infectious Diseases (IBID) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). After obtaining her PhD at the University of Sydney, she was an NIH International Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University where she pioneered the development of fluorescence microscopy techniques for ‘seeing’ where proteins are in a bacterial cell. These techniques have revolutionized our view of the internal organization of bacterial cells. Liz was then an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellow, and then an ARC QEII Fellow at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on how bacterial cells multiply and how they control this process to ensure equal partitioning of chromosomes vital for survival. She works with industry to develop novel antibiotics that target this process. In 2002 Liz was awarded the Australian Eureka Prize for Scientific Research and the Australian Society for Microbiology’s Frank Fenner Award in 2009.
Dr Rainer Heintzmann
King’s College,London
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/randall/rheintzmann.html
Dr Heintzmann leads the Biological Nanoimaging research group at Randall Division, King’s College London since 2004 and he is also Head of the "Multidimensional Microscopy" research group. His research interests centre on imaging cell function at high resolution. The Biological Nanoimaging group focuses on developing techniques to measure multidimensional information in small biological objects such as cells, cellular organelles, molecules or other structures of interest. His previous appointments were at the Dept. of Molecular Biology, MPI for Biophysical Chemistry 2002 – 2004 and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Department of Molecular Biology (Director: Dr. T. Jovin), Göttingen, Germany 2000 – 2001. His PhD in Physics, was obtained from the University of Heidelberg in 1999.
Dr. William Hughes
Garvan Institute,Australia
William Hughes heads a research group at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research focussed on understanding precisely where and when biochemical events occur in a cell to regulate fundamental processes. Currently the lab’s research is directed towards understanding how phospholipids and proteins can control the export of proteins from the inside of a cell to the outside. Consequently much of the research uses state-of-the-art microscopes and methodologies to visualize the movement of fluorescently tagged molecules within single cells. They are currently developing applications of Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM) to characterize the final membrane fusion event in export of insulin and glucose transporters.
He trained in Microbiology (B.Sc. Hons, Bristol, UK) and with the British Army before studying Molecular Genetics (M.Sc.) and for a Ph.D. in the Department of Genetics at Leicester University (UK, 1998). This led to work with GlaxoWellcome in London before undertaking biochemical/cell biological postdoctoral studies with Prof. Peter Parker at the Lincoln’s Inn Fields lab’s of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now Cancer Research UK). In 2002 he moved to Australia to work at the Garvan Institute. As of 2006 he heads the Phospholipid Biology Group within the Garvan’s Diabetes and Obesity Research Program and he is also the Director of the Institute’s Microscope Facility.
Dr. Stefan Jakobs
Mitochondrial Structure and Dynamics group,MPI for Biophysical Chemistry Goettingen, Germany
http://www.rsfp.de/
Stefan Jakobs is Research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. His two major research interests are the investigation of the molecular basis of the complex inner architecture of mitochondria and, second, the investigation of photochromic fluorescent proteins.
Mitochondria are essential organelles in all eukaryotic cells. The research program is aimed at the understanding of the organization of the mitochondrial inner and outer membrane in yeast and mammalian cells. To investigate the molecular mechanisms that determine the precise localisation of proteins within these membranes we use apart from the classical tools of molecular and cell biology, in particular advanced sub-diffraction resolution microscopy approaches.
Photochromic fluorescent proteins, although homologous to the well-known green fluorescent protein (GFP) have unique properties; they may be switched by light between a non-fluorescent and a fluorescent state. Their unique characteristics open up numerous applications in microscopy and beyond. We investigate the molecular switching mechanism and aim to improve the properties of these fascinating proteins to utilize them for live cell microscopy.
Stefan has a degree in Biology from the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. He undertook his graduate studies at the MPI for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany and John-Innes-Centre, Norwich, Great Britain between 1995-1999. He obtained his degree (Dr. rer. nat.), in 1999 from the University of Cologne, followed by an appointment in the laboratory of J. Schell/K. Palme, MPI for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne. The period until 2005 was spent at the laboratory of S.W. Hell at MPI for Biophysical Chemistry, Goettingen, Germany)
Please follow this link for publication list
Dr. Anita C Jones
University of Edinburgh
http://www.chem.ed.ac.uk/staff/academic/jones.html
Dr Jones is Reader in Physical Chemistry. Her research interests cover the areas of photophysics and photochemistry, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy, DNA conformation and interactions, and microfluidics.
Anita’s research is concerned with the study of molecular photophysics and photochemistry and the development and application of fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging. Anita is particularly interested in the application of fluorescence methods to biomolecular systems. Current projects include:
• Probing DNA conformation and DNA-enzyme interactions, using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.
• Quantitative spatial mapping of mixing, temperature, pH and other measurands in microfluidic (lab-on-a-chip) systems, using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).
• Ultrasensitive fluorescence detection of surface-bound protein, e.g. contamination on surgical instruments.
• Developing advanced photonics for the study of biological systems.
• Investigating the photoisomerisation of azo dyes, using NMR spectroscopy with in situ laser irradiation.
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Jones,+Anita+C[Full+Author+Name]
Prof. Aaron Lewis
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
http://aph.huji.ac.il/people/Lewis/index.htm
Professor Lewis joined the faculty of The Hebrew University in 1986 from a position of Professor of Applied Physics at Cornell University. Professor Lewis’ research has centered on unique ways to confine, manipulate and analyze light in nanometric domains. As part of this effort he developed near-field scanning optical microscopy, which has produced the highest resolution optical images that have ever been achieved. This is accomplished by the spatial confinement of light and has allowed optical imaging to enter the nanoworld.
For his seminal contributions to the development of the field of near-field optical imaging with its growing importance in a variety of areas including plasmonics, photonic circuits, quantum nano optics, optoelectronics and nano optical measurements of advanced telecommunications components Professor Lewis was awarded the Rank Prize in Optoelectronics by The J. Arthur Rank Foundation of London, England.
His laboratory also pioneered multiphoton second harmonic microscopy. Second harmonic imaging approaches the confinement of light through spectral confinement of the interaction of light with matter by the use of ultrashort pulses of light excitation and appropriate spectral detection of the resulting interaction. Second harmonic imaging was initially shown in his laboratory to be an ideal tool for the cell membrane which is naturally asymmetric. Using this advance he demonstrated that a large induced dipole is the primary signal for initiating visual excitation and light driven proton pumping in the retinal membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (bR). This has resulted in a major alteration in the accepted scientific dogma on the mechanistic role of light excitation in vision and bR.
He extended this work to show that second harmonic generation is extremely sensitive to alterations in cellular membrane potential. As a result of this work second harmonic imaging is recognized today as the most sensitive method for optically monitoring membrane potential and is presently the only technique known to measure membrane voltage in critical structures of neurons such as dendritic spines.
In addition to the above developments Aaron Lewis’ also pioneered the field of time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy. Furthermore, he with fountain pen nanochemistry and Chad Mirkin with dip pen nanochemistry were two scientists that pioneered the field of nanochemical writing starting with seminal papers in 1999. Finally, he has been very active in using his advances for developing new directions in the use of lasers and laser emulating devices in medicine and founded the Hadassah Hospital Laser Center.
Professor Lewis is also the founder of Nanonics Imaging Ltd. that commercialized his developments in near-field optics and pioneered the concept of integrating atomic force microscopy with standard tools such as optical microscopes, Raman microscopes, Scanning Electron Microscopes etc. The company is known for its innovative leadership of the industry including recent advances that have helped leapfrog barriers that have prevented, in the past, multiprobe scanned probe imaging. As a result of these advances, Nanonics Imaging Ltd has been able to introduce a revolution in atomic force microscopy systems with the introduction of the first multiple probe AFM/NSOM systems that portend new fundamental and applied directions in nano measurement protocols using multiprobe NSOM, electrical, thermal and other nano measurement requirements unachievable in the past.
Prof. Don McNaughton
Monash University
Don McNaughton is an Australian Professorial Fellow and director of the centre of Biospectroscopy based in the school of chemistry, Monash university. After completing a PhD in microwave spectroscopy of transient species at Monash University and an SERC post doctoral fellowship at Sussex University in transient species and astro-chemistry he was appointed to the academic staff at Monash chemistry in 1988. There he has pursued interests in high resolution infrared spectroscopy and more recently in the area of biospectroscopy. His current major program of research involves developing Raman and infrared micro-spectroscopy and imaging techniques to understand and follow biological processes and disease at a molecular level. Since 2002 this has involved considerable use of IR microscopy beamlines at Daresbury (UK), Singapore, Taiwan, Saskatchewan (Canada) and more recently the Australian synchrotron to study processes in single cells and in tissue. The Raman program is aimed at developing Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and Tip enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) to follow molecular processes in cells, particularly at nm resolution.
Prof. David Millar
The Scripps Research Institute
http://www.scripps.edu/mb/millar/Millar_Lab/Home.html
David Millar is Professor at the Dept. Molecular Biology (MB19) at the Scripps Research Institute. His research is focused on the study of nucleic acid-protein interactions using state-of-the-art fluorescence techniques. Of particular interest are the cellular replication process, the human immunodeficiency virus proliferation and the mechanisms that govern the secretory pathways. With his team tey specifically study DNA polymerases, the HIV Rev-RRE system and the human Signal Recognition Particle.
Other appointments include Council of the Biophysical Society, 2009-2012, Editorial Board, Biophysical Journal, 2006-2009, Chair, Molecular Biophysics Subgroup of the Biophysical Society, 2003. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and has been Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University.
Pub Med link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=DetailsSearch&term=david+p+millar&log$=activity
Prof. Paul Mulvaney
Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne
Professor Paul Mulvaney is a Federation Fellow in the School of Chemistry and Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne, and a co-director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Nanoscience and Technology (CNST), established in 2003. He serves on the CSIRO Division of Molecular and Health Technology's Science Council, is an executive member of the ARC Particulate Fluids Processing Centre and serves on the Advisory Board of Genera Biosystems.Paul received his PhD degree at the University of Melbourne in 1989, working on surface electron transfer reactions with Professor Franz Grieser.
Paul worked as a research associate at the ANU Applied Maths Department (1988-89), with the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicagoduring 1986-87, and in 1988 with Professor Dani Meisel. He was appointed as a research scientist at the Hahn-Meitner-Institute for Nuclear Research in Berlin from 1989-1992 with Professor Arnim Henglein, where he studied pulse radiolysis and the nucleation of nanocrystals. In 1993Paul returned to the University of Melbourne as an ARC QEII Research Fellow, accepting a Faculty position in 1997. In 1999, he spent time in Palo Alto with Quantum Dot Corporation. He was a Humboldt Research Fellow in 2000 at the Max-Planck Institute for Colloids and Surfaces in Golm, with Professor Markus Antonietti, and again in 2005 at the CAESAR Institute in Bonn with Professor Michael Giersig.
Paul is the recipient of the David Syme and Grimwade Prizes. He has published over 150 scientific papers and his work has accumulated around 7700 citations, an average of >45 citations per paper. His H index is currently 46.Paul has two patents in the field of nanoparticles that are commercially licensed and is a member of the Editorial Boards of Advanced Functional Materials and the Royal Society Journal PCCP.
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Mulvaney%2C+Paul%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
Prof. Mutsuo Nuriya
Department of Pharmacology ,School of Medicine, Keio University, Japan
Professor Mutsuo Nuriya studied biochemistry and biophysics at University of Tokyo in Japan and entered Ph.D. program in the Department of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland, USA. Under the supervision of Dr. Richard Huganir, he studied molecular and cellular mechanisms of learning and memory using mainly biochemical techniques. After receiving Ph.D., he moved to the laboratory of Dr. Rafael Yuste at Columbia University in New York, USA forhis post-doctoral training. Here, he applied the second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging technique to neurobiology and studied membrane potential dynamics of fine neuronal structures. Professor Nuriya moved back to Japan to have my own research group at the Department of Pharmacology in Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. Since then, he has been studying the nature of electrical information processing in neurons by combining SHG imaging and biochemical approaches.
Dr. Michael (Mike) S. Roberts
Therapeutics Research Unit, ,School of Medicine, ,University of Queensland
Professor Roberts BPharm, MSc, Dip Tertiary Ed DSc MBA FAIPM FACP is a NHMRC SPRF, Professor and Director of The University of Queensland’s Therapeutics Research Unit (TRU) based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital (PAH) and Professor of Therapeutics & Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy & Medical Science at the University of South Australia. He has more than 350 peer reviewed research publications > (550 communications in total, including 46 book chapters) and co-editor of six research books. He is has been awarded The Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT) RAND and Australasian Pharmaceutical Science (APSA) medals. He is also Associate Editor of Skin Pharmacology and Applied Physiology and a Member of Editorial Boards for Current Drug Delivery, Clinical Pharmacokinetics, Drug Metabolism & Pharmacokinetics and Pharmaceutical Research. He co-chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Barrier Function of Mammalian Skin held in Rhode Island (USA) and the ISP/AAPS Skin Frontier meeting held in Washington DC in 2007. He is a current member of the Australian Drug Evaluation Committee (Pharm) Committee (2004 - 2009), the Australian Medicines Committee, the Australian Government’s Advisory Group on Chemical Safety and the Australian Cosmetics Advisory Committee. Mike has a special interest in applying biophotonics to assist in the understanding of drug delivery and pharmacokinetics.
Prof. J. Paul Robinson
Purdue University
J. Paul Robinson is the SVM Professor of Cytomics in the School of Veterinary Medicine and a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. in Immunopathology from the UNSW, Sydney and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is currently Director of the Purdue University Cytometry Laboratories and Deputy Director for Cytomics and Imaging in the Bindley Biosciences Center.
He is the President of the International Society for Analytical Cytology and is the Editor-in-Chief of Current Protocols in Cytometry. He is an active researcher with over 110 peer reviewed publications, 20 book chapters, has edited 7 books and has given over 80 international lectures and taught advanced courses in over a dozen countries. Dr. Robinson was one of the first scientists to engage the internet when he established the PUCL public website in December 1993, undoubtedly one of the first sites at Purdue University and one of the first science based websites anywhere. It became the foundation site for his field with over 10 million hits per year to the current day. Based on the same technology, he was the first person to utilize web based educational materials by publishing the first identified published web-CDROM in April 1996. With over a dozen published CD-ROMs with a total distribution of 70,000 discs he was a leader in demonstrating the power of this technology in the field of science. He was elected to the College of Fellows, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2004, was the winner of the Pfizer Award for Innovative Research, 2004 and the Gamma Sigma Delta Award of Merit Research in 2002. He sits on the NIH Microscopy Study section & has participated in numerous NIH and NSF study sections.
His research area has focused on reactive oxygen species primarily in neutrophils, but more recently in HL-60 cells and other cell lines. His lab is currently studying the biochemical pathways of apoptosis as related to reactive oxygen species in mitochondria. Over the past several years, his group has expanded their interest in bioengineering with hardware and software groups developing innovative technologies such as the first high-speed multispectral cytometry, optical tools for quantitative fluorescence measurement and advanced classification approaches for clinical diagnostics and bacterial classification. His lab specializes in multidisciplinary research projects and this is reflected in backgrounds of his 50 PHD and MS students of which 19 were in engineering.
Recently, Dr. Robinson created a new foundation, “Cytometry for Life” with the goal of providing low cost CD4 technology to those nations most in need of these tools, initially focusing on countries in Africa. The Foundation activities include creation of appropriate technology, education and training in AIDS related activities.
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Robinson%2C+J+Paul%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
Prof. Sarah Russell
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Sarah Russell has been at the PeterMac since 2000, and is interested in the coordination of signal transduction by intracellular localization. Her group has found that T cell shape and signalling is regulated by a highly conserved polarity network, which includes the Scribble and Par3 complexes. Studying polarity in T cells presents technical challenges that require state-of-the-art imaging technologies, and to facilitate this Sarah started a second laboratory at the Centre for Micro-Photonics, Swinburne University of Technology in 2005. With advanced imaging approaches, we are currently exploring the role of the polarity proteins in T cell development, function and fate determination. We have recently identified lymphocyte development and function is controlled by asymmetric cell division. We are currently elucidating the mechanisms of asymmetric cell division, with a view to developing new approaches to alter immune function and to diagnose and treat leukaemia.
Prof. Markus Sauer
University of Bielefeld, Germany
align="justify">http://www.physik.uni-bielefeld.de/experi/d3/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=49
Professor Sauer is leading a research group in Applied Laser Physics and Laser Spectroscopy at the Physics Department University of Bielefeld.. They are developing new techniques for the detection, identification, separation, analysis, and handling of single biomolecules using pulsed laser systems. The refined understanding of the photophysics of organic fluorophore, for example, enables the development of new and highly efficient fluorescent probes, molecular photoswitches, and sensors for in vitro as well as in vivo applications. Besides this rather chemical and photophysical background his interests focus on the development of new optical techniques to study individual or few biomolecules, molecular assemblies, and protein machineries under natural conditions. Likewise, his group develops new probes for the early-stage detection of tumors or antibiotic resistant bacteria. Currently, he is coordinating a research network on “Photoswitches: key molecules for subdiffraction-resolution fluorescence imaging and tracking” and he is actively involved in the development of new methods based on photoswitchable fluorophores to unravel quantitative information form biological processes and interactions with high temporal and spatial resolution.
For a more detailed CV please visit
http://www.pci.uni-heidelberg.de/pci/msauer/d_msauer.html
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Sauer%2C+Markus%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
Prof. Herbert Schneckenburger
Institut für Angewandte Forschung, Hochschule Aalen
Professor Herbert Schneckenburger is Professor of Physics, currently employed at BIO5 Institute for Collaborative Research., Institute for Angewande Forschung in Aalen. Following his studies of Physics in Stuttgart (Germany) and Grenoble (France) he received his PhD in Physics from the University of Stuttgart in 1979 and his Habilitation in Biomedical Optics from the University of Ulm in 1992. After a research period in the Department of Applied Optics in the GSF Research Center of Environment and Health in Munich from 1979-1986, he received a professorship at Hochschule Aalen in Physics, Optics and Biophotonics. He is also affiliated with the Institute of Laser Technology in Medicine and Metrology at the University of Ulm. Herbert Schneckenburger's research centres around Optical Microscopy, Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Biomedical Screening and applications in cell biology, photobiology and fluorescence diagnostics.
Herbert’s mission in science is to accelerate discoveries in chemical biology. With his group they design new materials to enable faster biomarker discovery and analysis so that diseases such as cancer can be detected while they are more easily curable. We design materials to enable faster drug discovery that will cure these diseases more effectively. These studies are underpinned by techniques such as fluorescence microscopy, chemical separations, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and materials science.They collaborate extensively with other research groups, other departments and universities, and industry.
Pub Med link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Schneckenburger%2C+Herbert%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
Prof.Jenny Stow
Institute for Molecular Bioscience,University of Queensland
http://www.imb.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=11689
Jenny Stow completed her undergraduate degree, followed by a PhD at Monash University, Melbourne. She then went to Yale University School of Medicine as a Fogarty International Fellow in the Department of Cell Biology for postdoctoral training with one of the luminaries of cell biology and nephrology, Marilyn Farquhar. Upon leaving Yale, Jenny took up her first faculty position at Harvard as an Assistant Professor in the Renal Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. At the end of 1994 Jenny returned to Australia as a Wellcome Trust Senior Medical Research Fellow at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. The Centre she joined then has since grown into one of Australia’s largest research institutes, the Institute for Molecular Bioscience where Jenny has served as a Professor, Group leader, Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC and Head of the Division of Molecular Cell Biology. She currently serves as the Deputy Director (Research) of IMB. Jenny has established an international reputation in cell biology wherein her continuing research interest has been in protein trafficking and secretion in studies underpinned by her expertise in morphology, microscopy and fluorescence imaging. Her current work, related to cancer and inflammation, is focussed on trafficking in epithelial cells and in cytokine secretion pathways in macrophages.
Dr. Klaus Suhling
Kings College London, UK
Klaus Suhling obtained his PhD in Fluorescence Spectroscopy at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland in 1994, under the supervision of Prof David Birch. He subsequently completed post-doctoral work on light scattering from microemulsions in the School of Chemistry at the University of Hull, before joining the Astrophysics Group at Imperial College London to work on photon counting imaging. After moving to the Chemistry Department at Imperial College London to work on the photophysics of sensitisers for photodynamic therapy (PDT) with David Phillips, he worked in Biological Sciences, also at Imperial College London, on the application of multidimensional fluorescence imaging techniques to cell biology, with Dan Davis, David Phillips and Paul French. He established that the fluorescence decay of the Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) is a function of the refractive index of its environment, and he also worked on time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy imaging (TR-FAIM) in the time-domain. In September 2003, he was appointed lecturer in the Physics Department at King’s College London, where, in 2008, he was promoted to Reader. His aim is to apply advanced fluorescence spectroscopy methods to questions in cell biology and cancer research, and to develop optical imaging techniques and instrumentation for applications in the life sciences.
Prof. Leann Tilley
La Trobe University
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/biochemistry/lab/tilley/index.htm
Professor Tilley’s laboratory at La Trobe University undertakes research in the areas of cell biology and drug development. Her work has particularly concentrated on studies of the malaria parasite. Her laboratory currently comprises 15 people, including 5 postgraduate students and 3 postdoctoral fellows and receives over $400K in research funds each year. She has received major funding for establishing a confocal fluorescence photobleaching facility and a confocal fluorescence correlation facility. She has extensive experience in using confocal microscopy and recently electron microscopy to study changes in cell architecture. Prof Tilley has promoted the use of quantitative imaging approaches to study cellular processes and has published over 100 manuscripts. Professor Tilley is Deputy Director of a Centre of Excellence in Coherent X-ray Science sharing grants for $9 million from the Australian Research Council and $1.8 million from the Victorian Government. Prof Tilley's laboratory is using novel coherent X-ray diffraction imaging technique to image the ultrastructure of malaria parasite-infected erythrocytes.
Professor Leann Tilley obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Sydney in 1984. After Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Utrecht, the College de France and the University of Melbourne, she joined the Biochemistry Department at La Trobe University in 1989. She was appointed Professor in Biochemistry in 2004.
Pub Med link:
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/biochemistry/lab/tilley/publications.htm
Prof. Matt Trau
University of Queensland
Professor Matt Trau has research expertise in the area of nanostructured assembly and manipulation of matter in order to produce novel biomaterials and biodevices. Applications of his work include devices for rapid DNA sequencing, medical diagnostics, drug screening, and biomaterials for human implants.
In 2004, Professor Trau was awarded a Federation Fellowship by the Australian Research Council. This highly prestigious research award provides Professor Trau with $1.25 million over five years (matched by an equivalent sum from his host institution, the University of Queensland) to pursue his research in nano-bioscience and nano-biotechnology.
After returning to Australia in 1997, Professor Trau founded the Nanotechnology and Biomaterials Research Group. His group has become a Faculty Research Centre at the University of Queensland (UQ) and currently comprises 25 researchers. Major research programs being undertaken at the Centre include artificial human tissue engineering for bone, liver and pancreas tissue, and the development of novel devices for rapid DNA sequencing, genetic screening and drug discovery. Professor Trau and his team of scientists are also working on more targeted ways of detecting and treating disease.
As well as numerous publications in high-ranking journals, Professor Trau is an inventor on eight patents and the founder of Nanomics Biosystems Pty Ltd, a Queensland nanotechnology company undertaking the commercialisation of research from UQ's Centre for Nanotechnology and Biomaterials.
Professor Trau has a distinguished undergraduate career receiving a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours and the University Medal in the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Sydney in 1987, and a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 1992. His post-doctoral career includes a Fulbright Research Fellowship to the US where he performed research at Princeton University for three and a half years.
Pub Med Link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Trau,+Matt%5BFull+Author+Name%5D
A/Prof. Vladislav Verkhusha
Yeshiva University
New York, USA.
http://asb.aecom.yu.edu/faculty/verkhusha_vladislav/default.asp?pid=122&origin=asblist
Associate Professor Vladislav Verkusha is affiliated with the Department of Anatomy & Structural Biology , Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Member of Member of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Centre.
His laboratory is focused on the development of a collection of chromophore containing molecular nano-tools based on fluorescent proteins, which could be employed for analysis, manipulation or modification of biochemical processes in living cells, tissues and organisms with light photons. His research requires highly interdisciplinary research including molecular biology, structural biology, computer modeling, analytical and organic chemistry, and living cell microscopy.
Some examples include of his research includes research into photoactivatable and kindling fluorescent proteins that are irreversible and reversible photoactivatable probes, respectively. These are excellent tools for the precise optical labelling and tracking of proteins, organelles and cells within living systems in a spatiotemporal manner, and bring a new dimension to the kinetic microscopy of living cells. He has developed fluorescent timers that change their color from blue-green to orange-red with time; biophotonic tools for visualization of up- and down-regulation of target promoters, relative age of organelles and vesicles, and cell differentiation. He also has an active interest in Molecular biosensors consisted of GFP variants fused with sensitive domains, such as specific binding peptides or scaffolds.
He has in the last 8 yeas published over 40 papers on relating to the development and use of fluorescent proteins. Many are published in the Nature series of Journals.
Most recently, Dr. Verkhusha developed a red photoactivatable fluorescent protein (PAFP) called PAmCherry1, which has faster photoactivation, improved contrast, and better stability compared to other PAFPs of its type. PAmCherry1 will allow improvements in several imaging techniques, notably two-color super resolution fluorescence microscopy, in which two different molecules or two biological processes can be viewed simultaneously in a single cell.
One PAFP was used to capture the first nanoscale images of the orientation of molecules within biological structures. a novel PAFP to a new method of viewing individual breast cancer cells for several days at a time, providing new details on how cancer cells invade surrounding tissue and reach blood vessels, a process called metastasis. In addition, Dr. Verkhusha has developed new types of fluorescent proteins for use in conventional fluorescent microscopy. These new fluorescent proteins, called fluorescent timers (FTs), can change their color from blue to red over a matter of hours.These FTs will enable scientists to study the trafficking of cellular proteins and to provide accurate insight into the timing of intracellular processes, such as activation or inhibition of gene expression or protein synthesis.
Pub Med link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Verkhusha%2C+Vladislav%5BFull+Author+Name%5DDr Dr
Dr. Joerg Wiedenmann
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton,University of Southampton
Joerg Wiedenmann received his PhD in 2000 from the University of Ulm. At present, he works as Lecturer of Marine Molecular Biology at the University of Southampton and is head of the Marine Biotechnology Laboratory at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton. He discovered green and red fluorescent GFP-like proteins in sea anemones in 1997, and proposed their application as their application as in vivo markers (Patent DE19718640A1, DPMA). Since then, his research focussed on the biochemistry of fluorescent proteins and their application as markers in biomedical research. He and his group cloned the coding DNA of over 40 novel GFP-like proteins from marine invertebrates, with colours ranging from cyan over green and orange to the far-red region of the spectrum. He conducted detailed biochemical and spectral characterization of the proteins and was involved in X-ray crystallography of several fluorescent proteins. His group optimized fluorescent proteins by bioengineering techniques for applications as markers for automated microscopy and High Throughput Screening (HTS) techniques in drug development. Various aspects of the impact of GFP-like proteins on the coloration of reef corals were studied in the Great Barrier Reef, the Mediterranean Sea and under controlled laboratory conditions. He published over 50 scientific papers and is peer reviewer of several international journals and member of the peer review college of the Bristish Research Council. His work received several awards including the Merckle Research Award, and the Award Cooperation University & Industry.
Pub Med link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=DetailsSearch&term=Jorg+Wiedenmann&log$=activity
Prof. Tony Wilson
Professor of Engineering Science,Oxford University
Tony Wilson’s research in optical microscopy has had the overall aim of developing a variety of high resolution imaging techniques for applications in areas ranging from the life sciences to industrial metrology. His main interest lies in the theory and implementation of scanning optical microscopes and, in particular, the development of and applications of confocal microscopy. He published the first book on confocal microscopy in 1984 together with three hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals. He and his colleagues have introduced a number of diverse techniques into microscopy such as fibre optics, laser feedback, extended depth-of-focus imaging, fast aberration free optical focussing and adaptive optics. He is Executive Honorary Secretary of the Royal Microscopical Society as well as being General Editor of the Journal of Microscopy. He has been a member of Technical Staff at Bell laboratories, Holmdel, New Jersey in the United States and is now Professor of Engineering Science and a Fellow of Hertford College at the University of Oxford. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Pub Med link:
http://acara.eng.ox.ac.uk/som/Papers.html
Prof. Paul W. Wiseman
McGill University, Canada
Paul Wiseman holds a Fessenden Professorship in Science Innovation at McGill University, His research interests lie at the interface between the physical and biological sciences. I am interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in cellular adhesion (how biological cells stick together and to an underlying substrate) and how cells dynamically regulate adhesion receptors to control cellular migration. I am also interested in developing new biophysical methods such as third harmonic generation (THG) microscopy and the use of bioconjugated quantum dots as robust luminescent labels for biophysical imaging applications on live cells.
He uses newly developed imaging variants of FCS: image correlation spectroscopy (ICS) and image cross-correlation spectroscopy (ICCS). The ICS method allows measurement of transport properties (diffusion coefficients and flow speeds) as well as absolute concentration and aggregation state of the fluorescently tagged macromolecules imaged at the cell surface. Two-colour ICCS allows direct measurement of the fraction of interacting macromolecules and the transport dynamics of co-localized macromolecular species if the different macromolecules can be labeled with non-identical fluorophores.
Paul carried out live cell measurement of macromolecular dynamics and clustering phenomena of green fluorescent protein (GFP) integrin constructs to study their role in assembly of cell adhesion structures and in receptor "cross-talk" with other signaling systems in cells.
Paul holds a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario, 1995. He spent periods of research at Tokyo and Nagoya University, at UC San Diego. He is a member of the NIH Cell Migration Consortium Glue Program, Editorial Board Member Biointerfaces;. He received a number of awards including Biophysical Society Young Fluorencence Investigator 2005; Leo Yaffe Award for Excellence in Teaching 2007; Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Assistant Professor Level) 2007; Keith Laidler Prize in Physical Chemistry (Canadian Society for Chemistry).
Wiseman Research Group Link:
http://wiseman-group.mcgill.ca/
PubMed Link
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=DetailsSearch&Term=Wiseman%2C+Paul+W%5BFull+Author+Name%5D