Biophotonics - 585.734

Biophotonics is an emerging multidisciplinary field, embracing all light-based technologies applied to life sciences and medicine. This course introduces fundamental principles of biophotonics and their application to real-world devices for diagnostics, patient monitoring and therapy. In a series of “at-home” laboratory exercises, students will design optical systems for evaluation of optical properties of biological media and learn computational methods to simulate light transport in such media. Experimental kits based on smartphone technology and 3D printing are distributed to each student to enable “hands-on” laboratory measurements in spectroscopy and imaging to reinforce the principles learned in the lectures. Clinical and point-of-care applications of modern biophotonic devices including fluorescence spectroscopy, scattering spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, advanced microscopy, cellphone-based sensors and photodynamic therapy will be covered in detail. Students will also learn the process of transitioning biophotonic devices from the laboratory to the clinical setting, highlighting the critical steps required for a successful transition. For each application, students will understand how the device works, how the observed optical signature is related to fundamental tissue properties, and how the system performance is assessed through quantitative analysis. These skills will be developed throughout the course and used to evaluate devices not covered in the course as part of a project. In the project, students will apply the principles covered in this course to these selected devices.