FiO poised for lots of bio

Next week's Frontiers in Optics 2012, the Optical Society's annual meeting held in Rochester, NY and known as FiO, has a schedule packed with biophotonics and bio-optics research to be presented.

On Monday morning, October 17, Plenary Session speaker David R. Williams of the University of Rochester will describe use of adaptive optics for imaging single cells in the living retina, enabling microscopic views with unprecedented detail. Other biomedical applications employing adaptive optics are on the schedule as well.

FiO will feature quite a bit on point-of-care applications, too: Stephen Boppart of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will speak about optical coherence tomography (OCT) solutions for primary care physicians, and Holger Schmidt of the University of California-Santa Cruz will cover using optofluidics for molecular diagnostics.

Microscopy and OCT research will round out the bio offering. Elizabeth Hillman of Columbia University and Chris Xu of Cornell will each explore imaging of the living brain; Jeff Squier of the Colorado School of Mines will discuss multiphoton microscopy; and Gabriel Popescu of UIUC and Jerome Mertz of Boston University will talk about novel phase microscopy methods. In OCT, Zhongping Chen of the University of California-Irvine will cover intravascular applications, while David Huang of the Casey Eye Institute will discuss application to corneal imaging.

Please be sure to watch for tweets from the show floor while BioOptics World is there -- if you don't follow us already, just go to twitter.com/biooptics.

OCT system clearances galore

The first half of 2012 has seen a handful of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging systems garner U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) clearance for clinical use, signaling what's sure to become the gold standard for imaging technology. In case you missed it, here's a short recap:

OptiMedica (Santa Clara, CA)'s Catalys Precision Laser System, one that couples OCT imaging technology with a femtosecond laser, earned its FDA clearance in January for use in capsulotomy and lens fragmentation--both ophthalmic procedures. What's more, it was CE-marked (Europe's FDA equivalent) for corneal incisions in April.

NinePoint Medical (Cambridge, MA)'s Nvision OCT system gained FDA clearance in January for endoscopic application; specifically, imaging Barrett's esophagus (which can precede esophageal cancer). The company plans to kick off clinical trials of the system this year and boost its manufacturing capabilities to support a commercial launch some time next year.

Bioptigen (Research Triangle Park, NC) has been having a busy year, too. Last week, the company received FDA clearance to begin commercializing its handheld Envisu spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) devices for diagnosis of physiological and pathological conditions of the eye in patients of all ages. The system has received regulatory approval from Canadian, European, and Australian authorities already, and has even been used to remove the cataract of a 38-year-old elephant.