UPC coordinates European project to create new optical and photonic technologies for early diagnosis of coronary and eye diseases

Eight research centers, universities and companies from Spain, Germany, France, Poland and the United Kingdom are participating in the European BE-OPTICAL project led by two researchers from the UPC Terrassa Campus, Cristina Massoller and Meritxell Vilaseca. With the aim of creating innovative clinical instruments for more precise early diagnosis of coronary and eye conditions, the project will receive €3.4 millions over four years through the Horizon 2020 program.

One of the project's goals is to create clinical instruments that can generate high-resolution coronary images to replace current technology using electrical impulses. They will be working on imaging technology to obtain better images inside cells by overcoming the limitations of the wavelength of light. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany will work on coronary observation techniques in vivo with mice.

The scientific studies also hope to develop new sources of light and sensors to more accurately observe the eye and obtain new information for early diagnosis of cataracts, glaucoma and other retina conditions. The visual experiments under this project will be conducted at the Barcelona Institute of Ocular Microsurgery and at the Davalor Research Center, on the Terrassa Campus.

The project is coordinated by the UPC with the following partners: Institute of Physics at Georg August University Göttingen and the Biomedical Physics group at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, in Germany; the University of Saint Andrews, in Scotland; the Institute of Ocular Microsurgery, in Barcelona; the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), in France; the Nicolaus Copernicus University, in Poland; the University of Glasgow, in Scotland; and German high-precision optical equipment manufacturer PicoQuant.

Video of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOaEECRxuWs