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26-27 September 2023
EPIC Technology Meeting on Photonics for Bio and Life Science Applications at PARK INNOVAARE
Baden, Switzerland

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Biophotonics agglutinates all the technologies related with the interaction of light with biological organisms, tissues, cells and molecules. We have seen in the last years an amazing evolution with a great amount of developments and new technologies, which allows us to understand more in detail the behavior of different living beings, their internal structure and their reaction against certain chemical compounds and other external agents. All this information is very valuable to develop new products and to improve the performance of the existing solutions and devices dedicated to healthcare and medical applications.
In this meeting, we bring together the key companies developing photonics devices and components with researchers and end-users to discuss the current technology trends and emerging applications. We will discuss about the different imaging and analytical technologies involved in the visualization and characterization of biological samples, such as spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, OCT, Raman spectroscopy/imaging or fluorescence microscopy. We will pay attention to the mechanisms involved in the interaction of light with different tissues, very interesting to improve their properties or they performance by the absorption of energy in the irradiated area, and we will find which applications are trendier nowadays. And, last but not least, we will also talk about the last developments in fabrication and 3D printing for bio and life sciences, including bioprinting, 2 photon polymerization or additive manufacturing. We will find how those technologies can help to develop new components to support the different techniques of imaging and analysis, but also how their combination with cells, growth factors, and/or biomaterials allow the fabrication of biomedical parts.

Participants biographies, photos and companies descriptions are available HERE.

Agenda

Optional agenda: 

25 September, Monday

19:00 – 22:00 Pre – Event Dinner @ Hotel Du Parc, room Römersaal on the ground floor (address: Römerstrasse 24, 5400 Baden). Participants list available HERE (mind the correct sheet). 

26 September, Tuesday

Agenda for people specifically registered for the companies visits available HERE. Registration for companies visits is not available anymore. 

Official agenda for all: 

12:30 Departure by the bus transfer from Hotel du Parc to PARK INNOVAARE (optional). List of people booked this transfer available HERE (mind the correct sheet). 

13:00 – 13:50 Registration & networking lunch @ PARK INNOVAARE, Auditorium building (address: deliveryLAB, 5234 Villigen, Switzerland). MAP.
13:50 – 13:55 Welcoming word by EPIC – Antonio Castelo, Photonics Technologies Manager (Spain / Europe)
13:55 – 14:00  Welcoming by PARK INNOVAARE – Robert Rudolph, CEO (Switzerland)

14:00 – 14:30 SESSION 0: Early-stage Innovation in Photonics: Examples in the Field of Bio, Life Sciences and Medtech
14:00 – 14:30 Innovation Booster Photonics Connecting Science and Industry for Collaborative Earlystage Innovation – Project Examples from Switzerland’s Innovation Booster PhotonicsSelina Casutt, Managing Director (Switzerland)

14:30 – 15:30 SESSION 1: Bio-Printing and Other FabricationTechnologies for Bio and Life Sciences
14:30 – 14:45 UpNanoBiocompatible High-resolution 3D Printing in the Presence of Living Cells –  Bernhard Kueenburg, CEO (Austria)
14:45 – 15:00 Vital3D Technologies3D Bioprinting: Challenges of the Technology – What Needs to be Done to Print Full Size Kidney? – Vidmantas Šakalys, CEO (Lithuania)
15:00 – 15:15 APE Berlin – Edlef Büttner, Senior Scientist (Germany)
15:15 – 15:30 SPIO Systems – Henrik Madsen, CEO (Denmark)
15:30 – 15:45 FEMTOprint – New Solutions for Life Sciences in Diagnostics and Therapeutics via Laser-based Glass Micromanufacturing – Rosanna Toscano, Business Developer (Switzerland)

15:45 – 16:30 Networking coffee break

16:30 – 18:30 SESSION 2: New Developments on Bioimaging
Moderator: Antje Knopf, Professor for Medical Image Processing at FHNW (Switzerland)
16:30 – 17:00 KEYNOTE: PSI – Paul Scherrer Institute High-resolution 3D X-ray Imaging at the Swiss Light Source: Instrumentation and Biology Applications – Mirko Holler, Scientist (Switzerland)
17:00 –17:15 Prospective InstrumentsMultimodal Multiphoton Imaging for Medical Applications – Felix Wäger, Senior Scientist (Austria)
17:15 –17:30 IMASENICHigh-resolution, High-speed Imaging for Electron Microscopy and X-ray Applications – Renato Turchetta, Co-Founder and CEO (Spain)
17:30 –17:45 Lyncée Tec – Yves Emery, CEO (Switzerland)
17:45 –18:00 ESPROS PhotonicsUltra Fast and High Sensitive Spectral Sensing – Beat De Coi, CEO & President (Switzerland)
18:00 –18:15 GratXray – Martin Stauber, Co-founder & CEO (Switzerland)

18:30 Departure from PARK INNOVAARE by the bus transfer to the dinner place
19:00 – 22:30 Networking dinner @ Grand Casino Baden (address: Haselstrasse 2, 5400 Baden)
22:30 Walk from Casino to hotels

27 September, Wednesday

08:00 Bus transfer from Hotel du Parc to PARK INNOVAARE
08:20 – 08:50 Welcoming coffee break
08:50 – 09:00 Recap by EPIC

09:00 – 11:00 SESSION 3: Novel Spectroscopy and Analytical Techniques
09:00 – 09:30 KEYNOTE: Centre for Advanced Photonics & Process Analysis (CAPPA) Optical Solutions for Industrial Life Sciences Application – Liam Lewis, Head of Centre (Ireland)
09:30 – 09:45 Excelsus Structural SolutionsSynchrotron X-Ray Powder Diffraction to Support Pharmaceutical Drug Development – Mathilde Reinle-Schmitt, Physicist (Switzerland)
09:45 – 10:00 art photonicsFiber Spectroscopy Solutions in-line for Biophotonics Application in 0.3-16µm Range – Viacheslav Artyushenko, President & CEO (Germany)
10:00 – 10:15 HORIBAFluorescence Fingerprinting for Biotherapeutics Characterization – Florian Formanek, Global Life Sciences Market Manager (France)
10:15 – 10:30 QnamiBuilding a Quantum Platform for Sensing Applications – Felipe Favaro de Oliveira, CTO (Switzerland)
10:30 – 10:45 SUSS MicroOptics – Wilfried Noell, Senior Principal Scientist (Switzerland)
10:45 – 11:00 Ocean Insight From University Laboratories to integrated OEM Devices – Jonas Buchmann, Key Account Manager (Switzerland)

11:00 – 11:45 Networking coffee break

11:45 – 13:15 SESSION 4: Biosensors based on Photonics Technologies
11:45 – 12:00 LigentecIntegrated Biosensing from the Visible to the IR Using Low Loss Silicon Nitride – Anton Vasiliev, Project Manager (Switzerland)
12:00 – 12:15 Fraunhofer IZMScalable Assembly Processes for Packaged Photonic BiosensorsVanessa Zamora, Senior Scientist/Team Leader (Germany)
12:15 – 12:30 InSpek – Waveguide-enhanced Raman Sensors for (Bio)Process Monitoring – Jérôme Michon, CEO (France)
12:30 – 12:45 BialoomPlasmonic-augmented Photonic Integrated Biosensors for Better, Faster & Cheaper Management of Acute Infections at the Point-of-Care – Dimitris Tsiokos, Founder and CEO (Cyprus)
12:45 – 13:00 CoherentSemiconductor Laser Diodes for Bio-Sensing in Medical and Consumer Wearables – Gerald Dahlmann, Senior Director Marketing (Switzerland)
13:00 – 13:15 Fraunhofer HHIPhotonic Integrated Circuits for Biosensing – Axel Schönau, Deputy Head of Group (Germany)

13:15 – 14:00 Networking Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 Tour deep-tech campus Switzerland @ PARK INNOVAARE

15:45 Departure by the bus transfer to Zurich airport (optional)

Accommodation

The bus transfers to / from PARK INNOVAARE as well as the dinners places will be organized only from / to Hotel Du Parc. Please book this or any other hotel nearby using hotels websites or external booking systems.

Photography Policy

During this event our staff will be capturing the excitement, energy, and memorable moments that unfold. These photographs will be used for promotional purposes on our official website and social media channels, showcasing the vibrant atmosphere and experiences shared during the event.

Your Choice:

Your presence at this event is valuable to us, and we respect your privacy. If you have any concerns about being photographed and potentially featured on our promotional materials, please answer this email before or during the event. We will ensure that your preferences are respected.

Revoking Consent:

If you have initially consented to being photographed but later decide that you would like to revoke your consent, you can do so by notifying our staff or answering this email after the event. We will promptly remove any photographs featuring you from our promotional materials.

Your comfort and satisfaction are of utmost importance to us, and we want to create an inclusive and enjoyable experience for everyone attending this Meeting. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Speakers

Mirko Holler (Scientist) is responsible for instrumentation for high-resolution hard X-ray 3D microscopy and related experiments. Before joining PSI, Mirko Holler studied Physics at ETH Zurich and finished with a diploma degree in experimental physics in the group of Prof. Ursula Keller. He continued his work in Keller’s group developing a beamline for attosecond time resolved experiments. After finishing his PhD on “Attosecond strong field control” in 2010, he joined the Paul Scherrer Institute. Mirko's research focuses mainly on the methodological development of high-resolution 3D X-ray imaging, mainly on the instrumentation. The goals are to simplify the application of the techniques and to achieve faster measurement times, increase resolution and sample volume. This also involves aspects such as sample preparation and radiation damage. Mirko regularly applies such instruments in measurement campaigns, recently focused to the non-destructive imaging of integrated circuits and brain tissue.

Mirko Holler

Martin Stauber (CEO) is a scientist and entrepreneur, bringing innovative research to market. He is an expert in 3D medical imaging and has been working in the field of micro-computed tomography for more than 20 years. After his graduation, he was research fellow and lecturer at ETH Zurich. In 2008 he co-founded the ETH spin-off company b-cube AG, which he led as CEO until the company was sold to Scanco Medical AG in 2012. With this successful merger, he took over a position as senior scientist at Scanco Medical AG. Today, he is leading his second startup company GratXray, a spin-off of ETH Zurich and the Paul Scherrer Institute, as CEO.

Co-founder, CEO at GratXray

Axel Schönau (Deputy Head of Group) received his M.Sc. from the Technical University of Berlin in Electrical Engineering in 2018. During his master studies in Berlin and at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Copenhagen, he placed the focus on optics and photonics. He joint Fraunhofer HHI as a student assistant in 2016 and became a research associate in the Photonic InP Foundry Group in 2019. Coordinating the foundry service comprising customer relation and wafer validation, PIC design in indium-phosphide as well as photonic packaging state his key competences.

Deputy Head of Group at Fraunhofer HHI

Edlef Büttner (Senior Scientist) received his Master degree in Physics in 1981 from the Technical University of Dresden. He started his career in ultrafast laser physics in Berlin at the Institute of Scientific Instrumentation, where he worked on the generation and characterization of ultrashort laser pulses. In 1992 he co-founded the company APE GmbH, leading it as R&D manager. In 2015, he withdrew from operative business. Since then he has been focusing on strategic and special technical tasks for the future development of APE.

Edlef Büttner
Senior Scientist at APE Berlin

Rosanna Toscano (Business Developer Life Sciences) graduated in Biomedical Engineering with a Master's Degree at the Politecnico di Milano, Rosanna got a great professional experience in the Medical Device and Life Sciences industry, through a strategic marketing and sales activity. Her enthusiasm & research for Technical Innovation led her to FEMTOprint SA in 2019, where she is responsible for Life Sciences.

Business Developer at FEMTOprint

Yves Emery (CEO) holds a PhD in Physics (Optics) and a Business Administration Postgraduate certificate (HEC-UNIL). Prior to Lyncée, he has worked several years as Director of R&D and production in two start-ups active in the field of medical devices. His experience enables him to understand production, quality, and researchers’ issues and to develop products in accordance with customers’ needs over a very wide spectrum of technologies and markets.

Dimitris Tsiokos (CEO) obtained his Bachelor (BEng) degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Southampton, UK in 2001, and his Masters (MSc) degree in Optics & Photonics from Imperial College London, UK in 2002. In 2007 he completed his PhD degree at the National Technical University of Athens. In 2009, Dimitris was a visiting researcher at the School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin, USA, while he also joined the Centre for Research and Technology (CERTH) and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Since 2020 he is the CEO of Bialoom, a photonic biosensing technology startup that aims to accelerate diagnosis and therapy of acute infections. His technological interest spin around silicon photonics, plasmonics, biosensing and point of care diagnostics. Dimitris has authored and co‐authored more than 70 publications in peer‐reviewed journals and international conference proceedings, 4 book chapters and 3 patents.

Founder and CEO at Bialoom

Vanessa Zamora (Senior Scientist) completed her PhD in Physics at the University of Valencia, Spain, in 2010. During her PhD, she has shortly worked at Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada. Later, she joined the Fraunhofer HHI as a research associate in Berlin, Germany. She has been a research associate at the Technical University of Berlin since 2013 and at Fraunhofer IZM since 2015. Currently, she is a senior scientist and team leader for fiber optic interconnects and optical sensors at IZM. Her research covers advanced fiber coupling solutions, optical sensor development & packaging methods, especially for fiber optics and integrated photonics. She is involved in national and European projects providing miniaturization solutions based on exotic technologies such as laser welding, thermally-activated molten salt etching and laser structuring.

Senior Scientist/Team Leader at Fraunhofer IZM

Vidmantas Sakalys (CEO) is the top-level business manager with broad working knowledge in technology innovations within ITT, energy, lasers and bio-tech fields. Education in computer engineering and huge practical experience of 20+ years in ITT management roles and 10+ years in photonics innovation management. Founded and led laser research start-up Femtika. Served at the management boards in laser, telecommunications and psychology organisations.

Wilfried Noell (Senior Principle Scientist) is responsible for R&D projects, advanced technology, optical designs and special client requests with his dedicated team of scientists and engineers. Before joining SUSS MicroOptics, he was an R&D scientist and process engineer in the industrial x-ray business unit of the COMET AG, Switzerland. From 1994 through 2012, he worked on InP PICs, Silicon Photonics (SiPH), Optical MEMS (MOEMS) and MEMS actuators at TU Darmstadt, IMM Mainz, IMT/Uni Neuchâtel and EPFL, Switzerland, respectively. Since 2021, he is a member of the Swiss NTN Photonics Innovation Board.

Senior Principal Scientist at SUSS MicroOptics

Florian Formanek (Global Life Sciences Market Manager) holds a master’s degree in physics from Paris-Saclay University and a PhD from ESPCI with a specialization in near-field optics (2004). In 2004, he moved to Japan as a postdoctoral researcher at the national institute RIKEN, where he explored metamaterials. He later joined SONY Life Science Laboratory in Tokyo, focusing on the development of innovative Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy and imaging tools for healthcare applications. Subsequently, Florian worked for seven years at L’Oréal Advanced Research Division, managing the Microscopies and Microanalyses Laboratory in support of cosmetic applications. In 2018, he joined HORIBA as Head of Applications and was appointed Global Life Sciences Market Manager in 2021.

Global Life Sciences Market Manager at HORIBA

Felipe Favaro de Oliveira (CTO and Co-Founder) is an expert in Materials Science with extensive hands-on experience on diamond quantum materials. He did his bachelor and master studies at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, with a focus on nano-magnetisms. After that, he pursued a career abroad and received his PhD from the University of Stuttgart in 2017, with focus on the development of innovative processes to improve the quality of quantum sensors in ultra-pure diamond. Being excited by the maturity of this technology, Felipe decided to transition from academia and co-founded Qnami with the goal of pushing diamond-based quantum sensing out of the labs to solve real world problems. During his journey at Qnami, Felipe has put his unique know-how into improving the quality and reproducibility of the company’s sensor technology.

Jérôme Michon (CEO & Co-Founder) is a co-founder and CEO of InSpek, which he created after his PhD and post-doc in integrated photonics. During his PhD, his research was on flexible integrated photonics and photonic sensors. He then worked on the technology at the core of InSpek during his post-doc at C2N/Université Paris-Saclay. Jérôme holds an engineering degree in Physics from Ecole Polytechnique and a PhD from MIT.

Henrik Madsen (CEO) holds a master’s degree in optics and mechanical engineering. He worked 10 years in Ibsen Photonics with R&D in diffractive optics and another 10 years in Kaleido Technology with product development and management in ultraprecision metal optics. Henrik established Millpond Optics as CTO and lately SPIO Systems with ambitions on building a new trendsetting micro-optics production platform SPIO running on the same wafer level revolution as the electronic chip ran on.

Renato Turchetta (CEO) received the M.S. degree in Physics from the University of Milan (Italy) in 1988 and the Ph.D. from the University of Strasbourg (France) in 1991. In 1999 he joined the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. In 2001 he founded a design group developing custom CMOS image sensors (CIS). With his team he developed the first CIS product for electron microscopy, a 16Mpixel, rad-hard sensor, as well as a global shutter, 5 million frames per second, megapixel CIS. In 2014 he co-founded Vivamos Ltd., a spin-off set up with the goal to commercialise his 6.7 Mpixel, wafer-scale, video rate CIS. He was executive director of the company until the end of 2016. In 2017 he co-founded IMASENIC, where he is the CEO. Renato is member of the Advisory Board of the Image Sensors Europe conference since 2011. He also authored or co-authored over 100 papers in peer-review journals and 10 patents.

Co-Founder and CEO at IMASENIC

Felix Wäger (Senior Scientist) is responsible for electrical and mechanical design and development and microscopy application. Graduated Mechatronics at the University of Applied Science Dornbirn in 2019 focusing on Robotics and Microtechnology, started PhD studies at LMU Munich in the field of Human Biology focusing on microscope techniques for medical applications.

Liam Lewis (Head of Centre) hold a PhD from University College Cork in the area of micro electronic engineering. His background focused on the development and fabrication of novel light sources for applied research. The centre conducts both fundamental and applied research and has a strong track record in delivering solutions to industrial partners. Liam is directly responsible for the industrial engagement and delivery of technological solutions to the industry partners. He has won over €5M in competitively won funding over the last 10 years and some €2.5M in direct funded industry support. CAPPA has over €6M worth of ongoing projects in areas as diverse as food and beverage, life sciences, medical and pharmaceutical and dairy and agri. CAPPA’s industrial projects have a strong focus on the use of a variety of spectroscopic techniques such as FTIR, Raman, Fluorescence etc with the CAPPA project team having extensive experience in these areas.

Selina has more than 10 years of experience in the photonics industry. She has a background in physics and holds a PhD in ultrafast laser physics (both ETH Zürich). She used to work as a project manager and team leader in R&D, responsible for the product development of optical systems. She knows how to manage customer relationships for technical aspects and customizations and to provide appropriate innovative solutions. Selina supports the Innovation Booster Photonics with her broad network and proven experience within the photonics community, both industry and science.

Senior Director Marketing at Coherent

Bernhard Küenburg (CEO) received his PhD in organic chemistry at the TU Wien in 1991. He has over 20 years of executive management experience in the pharmaceutical and medtech industry and has developed several start-up companies. He has helped to found UpNano as a business angle and manages UpNano as CEO since its operational start over 4 years ago.

Beat De Coi (Founder and CEO) is Founder and CEO of Swiss based ESPROS Photonics corporation. He and his team developed a backside illumination imager technology, which allows to build sensitive CCD charge manipulation elements within CMOS chip devices. With this technology, high speed imaging, time-of-flight distance detection as well as wide band spectral sensing devices are available on the market. Beat De Coi is elected member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences SATW.

CEO & President at ESPROS Photonics
Project Manager at Ligentec

Jonas Buchmann (Sales Manager) brings Ocean Insight spectroscopy to a large portion of Europe’s BioPharma, Semiconductor and Automotive industry. He regularly engages with Scientists, Engineers and Visionaries to make spectroscopy available to the masses. In the past 4 years, he covered DACH, BeNeLux and the United Kingdom ensuring that projects in all sizes come to fruition. Before joining Ocean Insight, Jonas was in customer facing commercial and engineering roles for OEM consumer goods and ISO13485 medical products. He started his career as an Engineer for energy storage systems and later transitioned to be a Photonics Engineer in automotive lighting. Jonas is well established with a European customer base and his multi-industry experience helps him adapt to new customer challenges. Jonas holds a Master’s degree in Physics with emphasis on Molecular and Biological Nanophotonics.

Key Account Manager at Ocean Insight

Viacheslav Artyushenko (CEO & President) was born in Russia. His PhD in physics was done at General Physics Institute, Moscow in 1981 - focused on his pioneering development of polycrystalline fibers for Mid IR-range: 3-18µm. His multiple publications and patents were devoted to fiber optic technologies and applications in laser medicine, process-spectroscopy, optical sensing and diagnostic. In 1998, he founded art photonics GmbH in Berlin – one of worldwide leaders now in the production of specialty fiber products for a broad spectra 0.2-16µm. Dr. V. Artyushenko and art photonics are members of EPIC, CPACT, IBioIC, SPIE, OSA, SAS, SPECTARIS, Optec-BB, Photonics-BB, GDCh-DECHEMA & CLIRSPEC.



More speakers will be announced soon.

Attendees
Supported By
Programme Manager
Coordination
Antonio Castelo, PhD
Antonio Castelo, PhD
Technology Expert for Bio-Medical and Lasers
Event Manager
Logistics, venue, accommodation, and transportation
Neringa Noreikiene
Neringa Noreikiene
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