An Innovative Training Network to Brighten the Future of Biomedical Imaging

The research team of Professor Vasilis Ntziachristos, Chair of Biological Imaging at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), will participate in a new Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network called the Future of Biomedical Imaging (FBI). This research and training program brings together European academic institutions and bio-photonic companies leading innovation in multi-modal optical imaging. The FBI goal is to train a new generation of creative and entrepreneurial researchers who can transform knowledge and ideas into products and services, helping the economy and society to overcome the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Biophotonic imaging has tremendously advanced in recent years, enabling new abilities in non-invasive measurements of morphological and pathophysiological tissue alterations in response to disease or environmental challenges. These new readings come with tremendous potential to address unmet clinical needs, such as achieving earlier diagnosis, enabling personalized, more efficient treatment and reducing healthcare costs. The technology has already proven value with prototype experimental systems and pilot clinical studies.

Moving biophotonic imaging breakthroughs from the laboratory into the clinic is a formidable challenge and requires integrating diverse expertise from imaging concepts and technical skill to understanding biological readings and clinical requirements. It also requires creative, multidisciplinary thinking that draws on the latest advances in engineering, informatics, physics and medicine. However, many researchers at early stages of their career are typically focused on one or two core disciplines, making it difficult for them to identify clinically relevant problems and solve them as part of multidisciplinary teams.

The FBI program aims to break through these obstacles and catalyze the next round of innovations in optical imaging. The strategy is to select 15 early-stage researchers with high potential for achievement and to provide them with a strong, interdisciplinary on-the-job training in biophotonic imaging, hardware technology and related biomedical areas. Participants in the FBI program, which will run from 2016 to 2020 under the coordination of Prof. Peter Andersen of the Technical University of Denmark, will undertake an interdisciplinary 3-year PhD project with the aim of developing multimodal technology that combines complementary imaging techniques in order to provide as much clinically useful information as possible. These techniques will include optical coherence tomography, optoacoustic tomography (also termed photoacoustic tomography), multi-photon microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy.

To complement the scientific training, FBI participants will receive practical training in business competencies such as team leadership, project management and entrepreneurship. Fostering research and business competencies will help participants go on to produce excellent science that can be commercialized for the clinic. It will also prepare the participants for academic and industrial careers, contributing to European competitiveness in research and development.

Each FBI participant will be mentored jointly by one academic and one industrial supervisor. Participants will be hosted at one of the 10 institutions that make up the FBI initiative and that offer complementary expertise in biophotonics and component development, including TUM, the Technical University of Denmark, Eindhoven University of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Medical University of Vienna and Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam. Participants will also be mentored by experts at 9 global industrial leaders in biophotonics and medical technology, including Philipps Research and Carl Zeiss Meditec AG. Participants hosted at an academic partner institution will spend time at an industrial partner institution -- and vice versa -- in order to receive complementary training in hardware components or in another biophotonic imaging modality. This will help prepare participants for a career that bridges disciplines as well as the traditional divide between academia and industry.

The Chair of Biological Imaging at TUM, Professor Ntziachristos, will host two FBI participants and provide training to three additional early-stage researchers based at other FBI partner institutions. Professor Ntziachristos and his team at TUM and the Helmholtz Zentrum München are pioneers in optoacoustic imaging, a novel hybrid technology that combines light with ultrasound to overcome the limitations of optical scattering inside tissues, allowing non-invasive, high-resolution imaging deep within living tissue. The FBI participants trained by Professor Ntziachristos and his team will become experts in this promising technology and seek to integrate it with other techniques such as ultrasound and optical coherence tomography to create innovative clinical devices, with efforts focusing initially on a next-generation multimodal endoscope for diagnosing gastrointestinal and bladder disorders and assessing treatment outcomes.

Further information

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) are highly prestigious awards funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 Program and focused on training the next generation of leading European scientific experts to solve global interdisciplinary questions and increase European competitiveness in research and development.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) is one of Europe’s leading research universities, with more than 500 professors, around 10,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 39,000 students. Its focus areas are the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences and medicine, reinforced by schools of management and education. TUM acts as an entrepreneurial university that promotes talents and creates value for society; it benefits from having strong partners in science and industry. It is represented worldwide with a campus in Singapore as well as offices in Beijing, Brussels, Cairo, Mumbai, San Francisco, and São Paulo. Nobel Prize winners and inventors such as Rudolf Diesel, Carl von Linde, and Rudolf Mößbauer have done research at TUM. In 2006 and 2012 it won recognition as a German "Excellence University." In international rankings, TUM regularly places among the best universities in Germany.

The Helmholtz Zentrum München (www.helmholtz-muenchen.de), as the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the objective of developing personalized medicine for the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of widespread diseases such as diabetes mellitus and lung diseases. To this end, it investigates the interactions of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Zentrum's headquarters are located in Neuherberg, just north of Munich. The Helmholtz Zentrum München employs around 2,300 people and is a member of the Helmholtz Association, which has 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers with around 37,000 employees.

The Chair of Biological Imaging (CBI) invents and innovates in vivo imaging technologies for the biomedical sciences and clinical applications. It develops systems, theories, and methods for imaging and links these advantages to accelerating biological discovery and clinical benefits for patients. A long-standing objective is to provide high-performing imaging and sensing tools for earlier diagnosis and more accurate therapy.