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Inside the handheld pathogen detector device created with Biophotonic
technology, an antigen bead emits a specialized light created
with an antibody that will attach to harmful pathogens. Animation
still by Steve Oerding, IET Mediaworks |
The sci-fi dream of using laser and light
scanners to examine and treat
medical patients is moving closer
to reality, as UC Davis recently
announced the creation of the
Center
for Biophotonics Science and
Technology. Funded with
$52 million over the next 10
years, including a $40 million
grant from the National
Science Foundation (NSF),
this new center will facilitate
collaboration across disciplines
and provide equipment and lab
space for scientists as they
develop new biophotonics applications
and techniques. To demonstrate
this new center's promise, scientists
worked with IET
Mediaworks to prepare animations
and video footage of a few current
examples of their work, including
a portable pathogen detector
that will be used to quickly
identify potentially deadly
viruses and other biological
agents.
What Is Biophotonics?
Biophotonics,
the science of generating and
harnessing light photons to
image, detect, and manipulate
biological materials, offers
the ability to diagnose and
monitor disease nearly at the
speed of light, based on light
and laser interactions with
human tissue. Biophotonics will
allow healthcare professionals
to learn in moments what before
took hours or days to diagnose.
Future uses of this technology
will speed up treatment commencement
and severely minimize, and in
some cases virtually eliminate,
the hospital time and long recovery
periods that current procedures
require.
"Lasers have become an essential element in clinical practice in contemporary medicine and
surgery," said James E. Boggan, professor of neurological surgery at UC Davis School of Medicine
and Medical Center and co-director of the new center.
Biophotonics also allows for studying human tissue at the cellular and molecular level to detect,
diagnose and monitor disease. At the UC Davis Medical Center, biophotonic technology is being
utilized in an experimental device that recently started clinical trials for taking biopsies in
women for breast cancer. If this trial is successful, it may eliminate the radical Lumpectomy
procedure that is used now to take a tissue sample from the breast. Other applications of this
technology include the non-invasive early detection of diabetes and cervical cancer (for more
information, see
http://biophotonics.ucdavis.edu/).
UC Davis Comes Out on Top
Recognizing the revolutionary impact of biophotonics, over 150 different academic institutions
applied for the $40 million grant that the NSF awarded to UC Davis. (To read more about UC Davis
bid for the grant made last October see the December 2001 IT Times story at
http://ittimes.ucdavis.edu/dec2001/biophotonics.html).
The new center will bring together roughly 100 researchers, including physical scientists, life
scientists, physicians and engineers and other members from Universities all over the country.
According to campus officials, this extensive collaboration between UC Davis and other
universities is a reflection of the campus' history of researchers from different fields working
together. "To be selected as the lead campus for such a major multidisciplinary center is a
tribute to the strength and depth of UC Davis' research, especially in areas such as biophotonics
that cross boundaries between disciplines," said Virginia Hinshaw, provost and executive vice
chancellor at UC Davis.
Work is Already Underway
Physicians and scientists at UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore National
Labratory are already testing new microscopes that can more clearly
distinguish cancerous and healthy tissue. Plans are underway to develop
a hand-held pathogen detection unit to quickly identify the presence
of potentially infectious agents, from anthrax to smallpox. In fact,
test versions of this unit will be used by United Nations inspectors
in Iraq to help detect the presence of biological weapons.
Mediaworks Helps Center Unveil Projects to the Public
To further demonstrate the possibilities of biophotonics in devices like the pathogen detector,
scientists worked with Mediaworks, the campus instructional technology and digital media service,
to create a series of animations and video clips. The animation and b-roll footage were used
during the press conference announcing the Center, and is now available on the Center's Web site
(http://biophotonics.ucdavis.edu/news/video/).
"The video animations provided by Steve Oerding
and other artists were extremely well-done, and clearly demonstrated what can be extremely
complex technical topics," says Leslie Sandberg, Chief Information Officer for the Center.
|
| Oerding
worked with scientists to create a model of the pathogen detector
device. Image by Steve Oerding, IET Mediaworks |
Oerding worked under unusual circumstances to create
the animations. Since the nature of the new device is highly classified,
Oerding had to communicate by phone only with the scientist, who was
at an undisclosed location. The inventor could only provide a faxed
rough sketch of the yet-to-be-created pathogen detector, also sending
along a PowerPoint presentation describing the functionality of the
device. From there, Oerding created a sketch, then a pen/ink drawing,
scanned the images and brought them into Photoshop. After that, he
used Adobe After Effects where he could fully animate the illustrations.
Other folks at Mediaworks supplied the sound, music and a voice-over
that Oerding added to the press demonstration video.
"It was interesting working on such a high-profile government project," Oerding explains. "The
outcome of this work will be much more high profile than most of my work here on campus," says
Oerding, a Mediaworks artist whose job often consists of supporting professors, scientists, or
staff by supplying them with various formats of media for their educational projects. "This
pathogen detector will be used by first responders in many branches of the United States
government to detect biological attacks," he remarks.
Future Plans Include Educating Students
According to Sandberg, a major thrust of the new Center will be to spark an interest in science
in children and young adults so that they can become tomorrow's science and technology leaders.
To achieve those aims, the Center will partner with schools and universities of all levels, from
elementary to the collegiate level. UC Davis will also develop undergraduate and graduate courses
in biophotonics, including a new mentoring program called "shadow a scientist." The Center also
will work with minorities and women to ensure that the next generation of scientists is a diverse
group.
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