Biophotonics and the Future of Personal Health Care

Bruce J. Tromberg, Ph.D.
Professor, Laser Microbeam and Medical Program
Director, Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic
University of California, Irvine

Biophotonics technologies can be designed to provide unique, dynamic information about tissue structure  and  biochemical  composition.  Their  impact  spans  from  medical  diagnostic  and therapeutic  devices  to  consumer-based  wearable  sensors.    With  advances  in  device miniaturization and high performance photonics components, the line between conventional medical  instruments  and  consumer  devices  is  becoming  increasingly  blurred.    Health  care economic pressures are further accelerating this ambiguity by shifting clinical attention from expensive disease treatments to strategies for cost-effective disease management and prevention. This talk introduces emerging Biophotonics technologies that are capable of characterizing tissue structure and biochemical composition spanning from micro- to macroscopic regimes. We will illustrate  the  power  of  both  wearable  and  non-contact  optical  devices  for  assessing  tissue functional parameters including: tissue blood, water and lipid content; tissue oxygenation and oxygen consumption, heart and respiration rate, and tissue blood flow. Finally, we will consider projected trends in development that are expected to impact how we generate, access, and manage this complex information and improve outcomes for individual patients. 

Dr. Tromberg is the Director of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic (BLI) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and principal investigator of the Laser Microbeam and Medical Program (LAMMP), an NIH National Biomedical Technology Research Center. He is a Professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Surgery, co-leads the Onco-imaging and Biotechnology Program in UCI’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and has been a member  of  the  BLI  faculty  since  1990.  His  research  interests  are  in  the  development  of quantitative,  broadband  Biophotonics technologies  for  characterizing  and  imaging  tissue structure, function and composition across spatial scales. He has pioneered model-based methods that utilize spatially and temporally modulated light sources for diffuse optical spectroscopy and imaging, non-linear optical microscopy, and multi-modality imaging.