The 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Lasers in Medicine and Biology will be held from July 20-27, 2008 at the Holderness School in Plymouth, NH. The intent of the conference is to assemble lead investigators from academia, clinics/hospitals, national laboratories, and industry to examine the future directions of biophotonics research with the goal of improving medical practices and biological understanding. A second goal of this conference is to provide an intellectually challenging, open, and convivial environment to assimilate young researchers into this exciting field. Nine technical sessions are scheduled to provide a broad and comprehensive coverage of the biophotonics field while giving in depth examination of several rapidly developing subfields. Four sessions provide general coverage: Novel biophotonic technologies in the macroscopic area, Novel biophotonic technologies in the microscopic/nanoscopic area, Clinical diagnosis based on endogenous signals, and Clinical diagnosis based on exogenous probes. Four sessions are more focused: Photodynamic therapy, Minimal invasive techniques, Intravital tumor biology investigations in animal models, and Image based bioinformatics. We further scheduled a technical session featuring interactive scientific discussions on two topical issues in the biophotics field; the participants of these debates are limited to graduates students and postdoctoral fellows who will be coached by dedicated faculty mentors. The main goal of these interactive discussion sessions is to further involve junior researchers in active scientific dialogs. We believe that the biophotoics community is an important growing component in our national's biomedical research portfolio and this Gordon Research Conference is vital to the health of our community. We seek funds from the National Institute of Health to support this important meeting. ? ? ?
