The 1st Carpathian Biophotonics Meeting (CBM2025) is delighted to host a Special Plenary Talk from the Honorary Chair:
Prof. Alberto Diaspro
SEELIFE, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Genova, Italia.
Nanoscopy,Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, CHT, Erzelli, Genova, Italia.
Istituto di Biofisica, CNR, Genova, Italia.
Short CV:
Alberto Diaspro – Biophysicist. Full Professor of Physics at the University of Genoa and Director of Research in Nanoscopy at IIT. He has published over 500 scientific articles. He mainly works in optical nanoscopy and nanoscale biophysics. He received the Emily M. Gray Award from the Biophysical Society and the award for scientific communication from the Italian Physical Society. In 2022, he received the international Gregorio Weber Award for excellence in studies concerning fluorescence. In 2024, he was awarded the honour of Knight of the Order “of Merit of the Italian Republic” and the Enrico Fermi Prize for Physics from the SIF “for original contributions to the development and application of optical microscopy and the crucial impact on cellular and molecular biophysics”. He also received the Sant’Eligio Special Prize from Federpreziosi and the “Beppe Pericu” Prize from the Società di Letture e Conversazioni Scientifiche of Genoa for scientific activity and dissemination in 2024.
Special Plenary Talk Abstract:
Beyond the invisible. The optical microscope from fluorescence to label-free boosted by artificial intelligence
Advanced optical microscopes, from fluorescence-based super resolved methods to quantum optical microscopy, are analytical instruments able to produce images that are rich sources of quantitative information towards an unprecedented insight into the molecular mechanisms that govern and determine the fate of living cells. Their developments are positioned at the interface between biology and physics. Multimodal optical microscopy is a growing attitude boosted by artificial intelligence that makes intelligent the microscope. Definitely, fluorescence plays a key role coupling microscopy and spectroscopy by adding to image formation photochemical parameters, from brightness to lifetime, and non-linear approaches, like those associated with multi-photon excitation able to exploit intrinsic fluorescence and SHG/THG. In this framework, polarization methods like Mueller matrix microscopy expand those contrast mechanisms available for imaging towards labe-free. Such an “optical and probe” based state of the art is boosted by the growing use of artificial intelligence and the increasing availability of single photon detectors. The microscope becomes intelligent with the ambitious target to create a robust virtual environment “to see “what we could not perceive before”. An interesting case study is related to understanding the visualization of chromatin organization
Diaspro, A.. Confocal and Two-Photon Microscopy: Foundations, Applications and Advances. Wiley (2021).
Diaspro A., Bianchini P.; Optical Nanoscopy. Riv. Nuovo Cim. 43, 385–455 (2020) – open access.
Diaspro, A. et al. Emerging Mueller matrix microscopy applications in biophysics and biomedicine. Riv. Nuovo Cim. 46, 473–519 (2023) – open access.
Astratov, V.N. et al. Roadmap on Label-Free Super-Resolution Imaging. Laser Photonics Rev., 17, 2200029 (2023) open access.
Diaspro, A. et al. The artificial microscope, in Proc. of European Optical Society Annual Meeting, Dijon (2023).