BIGSS 2026 Progamme

	Origins of optical properties; Measurements of optical properties - lookup tables; Monte Carlo simulations; Coupling tissue optics into modelling of photochemical, photothermal, and photomechanical effects.

	Fundamentals of OCT and angiography; Translational Optical Imaging in Medicine; Image and Signal Processing

Physical energies in the form of photons can interrogate or modify the chemical composition of tissue thus providing clinical information of or destroy it. This lecture, covering mostly therapeutic applications will juxtapose ionizing and optical radiation by their interaction methods with matter and in particular biological tissues. The pathways from physical energy deposition to biological and clinical effects are discussed, both as a function of quantum energy and power density. The abilities of photons with different quantum energies to transverse tissues and ultimately destroy or modify it, is reflected in their respective approaches for personalized treatment planning. Methods and means to augment energy deposition in particular via the use of nano particles will be presented. Clinical examples of the various photon mediated treatment modalities will be used to highlight the medical opportunities ionizing and optical radiation harbour.

	A historical perspective; Basic principles of photoacoustic signal generation, Imaging instrumentation: microscopy and tomography; Basic principles of image formation and processing; Multi-modal combinations; Biological and translational applications.

	Optical polarization-sensitive techniques for applications in medical imaging and the diagnosis of various pathologies, with a particular interest in women’s health.

	Surgical devices, Variations of devices, Optical tracers, Molecular optical tracers, Photochemistry & photodynamic therapy, Radiochemistry, Nanoparticles in photophysics and radiophysics, Radiation therapy, Optical Diagnostics in radiation therapy.

Photo Here	Diffuse optical tomography; diffuse correlation and speckle contrast spectroscopies; neurocritical care; critical care; neurodevelopment; diffuse optical spectroscopy and tomography; near-infrared spectroscopy

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Dr. Katherina Hemmen is a Senior Scientist at the Core Unit Fluorescence Imaging of the Rudolf Virchow Center (Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg). Her PhD focused on single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, giving her strong expertise in FRET, time-resolved fluorescence, and fluorescence anisotropy. She develops fluorescence lifetime imaging and spectroscopy approaches in live cells to study membrane receptor dynamics and protein interactions for integrative dynamic structural biology.

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Prof Ryder has a B.Sc. (1989) and Ph.D. in chemistry (1994) both from the University of Galway (UoG). After a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry at UCC, he joined the National Centre for Laser Applications in UoG 1997 to work on developing quantitative Raman spectroscopy for measuring illicit narcotics. In 2003 he formed the Nanoscale Biophotonics Laboratory which advances the use of Fluorescence and Raman spectroscopies for industrial, life and physical science applications.