Top Photonics News: Medical Photonics--October 4, 2013

Medical photonics are continually evolving to make the diagnosis and treatment of disease more accurate and effective; here, we recap some recent progress, as well as note a couple of large new sources of research funding.

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany now use an automated microscopy technique to directly see how well cystic fibrosis drugs are working:
Microscopy helps discover potential new drug target for cystic fibrosis (BioOptics World)

An integrated optical device based on autofluorescence and Raman spectroscopy analyzes tissue removed during surgery without the need for tissue sectioning or staining:
Integrated optical technique speeds cancer diagnosis during surgery (BioOptics World)

The importance of the optical-tweezing technique to biology and the medical sciences is illustrated in this collaboration between two photonics companies:
Optofluidics chooses Avo Photonics to produce molecular tweezer system (Laser Focus World)

To the tune of $40 million, the National Institutes of Health are funding research, some of it photonics-based, to understand the brain's neural circuits:
NIH approves high-priority research within BRAIN Initiative (BioOptics World)

Someday, machine-vision systems may equal the eye in pattern-recognition ability and dexterity--this initiative aims to help:
NSF awards $10 million to develop vision system equaling the visual cortex (Laser Focus World)