Conference Chair Welcome Letter
5th Asian and Pacific-Rim Symposium on Biophotonics (APBP’15)
Toshiaki Iwai
Conference Chair
Director of the Optical Society of Japan
Professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
On behalf of the organizing committee and the technical program committee, it is great
happy to welcome you to the Asian and Pacific-rim Symposium on Biophotonics 2015
(APBP’15). The 1st APBP conference was held in Sapporo, Japan in 2001 to provide an
opportunity for exchanging information on the status, advances, and future direction of
the field of Biomedical Photonics in Asian Pacific-rim region. The 2nd conference was
held in Taipei, Taiwan in 2004, the 3rd in Cairns, Australia in 2007, and the last
conference in Jeju Island, Korea in 2009. It is a great honor to host the 5th APBP in
Yokohama, Japan in the memorial year, The International Year of Light and Light-based
Technologies.
The research field and the related technology of biomedical photonics have been gained
great progress during the past twenty years all over the world. The research field have
extended from the theory and numerical simulation to more practical diagnosis, e.i.
optical coherence tomography, diffusing light topography, and so on. We have over 70
contributed papers on various topics including optical coherence tomography, spectral
diffuse reflectometry and imaging, photoacoustic imaging, optical microscopy and
nanoscopy, Raman imaging, photo therapeutics and laser tissue/cell interaction, and so
on. Especially, we invite one plenary speaker, Prof. Pogue from Dartmouth College, USA
and three invited speakers, Prof. Yang from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, Prof.
Sugiura from Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, and Prof. Higuchi from
University of Tokyo, Japan. We would like to thank all the speakers and participants.
We would like to thank all the people in advisory committee, international steering
committee, and program committee who works so hard to make the APBP’15 succeed.
Especially We would like to thank Prof. Okada, Prof Ohmi, Dr. Nishimura, and Dr.
Yasuno for various supports with which the APBP’15 has been successfully held.
[APBP'15]
1) The Scope of the Symposium
The symposium covers wide areas of optics and photonics in biology and medicine. The main topics of the
symposium are: optical microscopy and nanoscopy; probes for molecular imaging; optical coherence
imaging; photoacoustic methods; diffuse spectroscopy and imaging; photo therapeutics; laser tissue/cell
interaction.
2) The Plenary and Invited Talks
[Plenary Talk] Diffuse optical imaging, molecular imaging
- Brian W. Pogue, Dartmouth College, USA
"New methods for whole-animal, quantitative, high-resolution, molecular imaging"
[Invited Talk 1] Optical manipulation (OMC & APBP Joint Session)
- Tadao Sugiura, Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
"Optical tweezers for investigation of mechanical property of a cell"
[Invited Talk 2] Optical manipulation (OMC & APBP Joint Session)
- Motoshi Kaya, University of Tokyo, Japan
"Molecular mechanism of efficient muscle contraction revealed by single molecule approaches"
[Invited Talk 3] Optical coherence imaging
- Chih-Chung Yang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
"Optical coherence tomography based on resonant absorption and scattering of localized surface plasmon
on Au nanorings"
[Invited Talk 4] Photo therapeutics
- Tomonori Yano, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Japan
"Photodynamic therapy as a salvage treatment for local failure after chemoradiotherapy for esophageal
cancer"
[Invited Talk 5] Photoacoustic method
- Chulhong Kim, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea
"Recent Progress in Photoacoustic Imaging: Systems, Agents, and Applications"
[Invited Talk 6] Probes for molecular imaging
- Yasuteru Urano, University of Tokyo, Japan
"Development of a novel spontaneously blinking fluorophore for single-molecule localization
microscopy"
[Invited Talk 7] Diffuse optical imaging
- Yutaka Yamashita, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan
"Recent progress in Time-Resolved Spectroscopy and its medical applications"
3) The Expected Outcomes of the Symposium
Optical and photonics techniques play very important roles in biology and medicine. They open up new
frontiers of biology and being translated into clinical diagnosis and therapies.