News update
PLATFORMA - Engineering Peripheral Nervous System
Prof. Edik Rafailov would be coordinating this new project partnered with groups in Germany and Belgium which aims to produce world's first innervated human skin tissue models to be used for testing screening and therapeutic applications. These models can be requisite for assessing neurotoxicity of of cosmetics, pollutants and various remedial applications like wound healing, transdermal drug delivery etc.
https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/platforma-peripheral-nervous-system-tissue-engineering-various-testing-applications
https://www.platforma-project.com/
SCAFOLD-NEEDS : 3D scaffolds for Neuroscience
Prof. Edik Rafailov in collaboration with Laser NanoFab GmbH (Hannover) has been awarded a prestigious H2020 FET Launchpad SCAFOLD-NEEDS project worth €100k. The main target of the project is to make 3D scaffolds and 3D scaffold platforms with integrated electrodes commercially available for various investigative studies in neuroscience.
https://scaffold-needs.eu/
AMPLITUDE - Multimodal Imaging Technique
Professor Edik Rafailov as a PI and partner of a large consortium has been awarded a prestigious 4 year H2020 grant AMPLITUDE worth €4.7M. This is collaborative work with 11 partners (Aston part worth over €620k). The main target of the project is to develop a new concept of label-free, multi-modal microscopy and endoscopic imaging operating in the new wavelength region with multiple imaging and spectroscopic technologies, including NIR confocal reflectance microscopy, multi-photon microscopy and spontaneous Raman spectroscopy.
https://www.amplitude-imaging.com/
PULSE- High Peak Power Lasers for Industrial applications
Prof. Edik Rafailov as a partner of a large consortium has been awarded a prestigious 4 year H2020 PULSE project worth €5.2M. This is collaborative work with 12 partners (Aston part over €610k). The main target of the project is to develop a world record power 2.5kW laser providing from picosecond down to femtoseconds pulses at repetition rates up to 1GHz with excellent beam quality and brought to the market at highly competitive costs enabling widespread industrial uptake.
https://www.pulse-laser.eu/
PLATFORMA - Novel platform for Screening
Professor Edik Rafailov (Coordinator) and Dr Sergei Sokolovski have won an award from the H2020 FET PROACTIVE scheme. The Proposal, PLATFORMA, attracting €2 million for two years, with €360k going to the Aston team. PLATFORMA is a commercially driven collaboration to produce novel high-content phenotypic platforms for screening cosmetics, pollutants and new therapeutics. PLATFORMA proposes to create purpose-built, 3D modular human tissues supported by laser-printed bio-compatible scaffolds from which electro-physiological status of the cells can be monitored.
https://www.platforma-project.com/
NEUROPA -Challenging Alzheimer's with Laser
A €3.6M EU Project NEUROPA ,lead by Prof. Edik Rafailov, was launched to challenge and palliate the conditions of Alzheimer's and Huntington's Disease in affected patients utilising Lasers in Optgenetics.The project aims to implement the technology in mice model in the next 3 years. Successful completion of this milestone will, in a few years time, bring about relief to human patients suffering with these neurological disorders.
Please find the links to futher description below:
https://www.neuropaproject.com/
https://www.labiotech.eu/brain/alzheimers-disease-lasers-phytoptogenetics/
H2020 grant for Microscopy & Spectroscopy Technologies in new wavelength region
Prof. Edik Rafailov (AIPT) as a PI and partner of a large consortium has been awarded a prestigious 4 year H2020 grant worth €4.7M. This is collaborative work with 11 partners (Aston part over €620k). The main target of the project is to develop a new concept of label-free, multi-modal microscopy and endoscopic imaging operating in the new wavelength region with multiple imaging and spectroscopic technologies, including NIR confocal reflectance microscopy, multi-photon microscopy and spontaneous Raman spectroscopy.
Prestigious Award from EC Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Scheme
Professor Edik Rafailov (Coordinator), Dr Sergei Sokolovski (both AIPT) and Dr Rhein Parri (LHS) has won an enormously prestigious award from the EC Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Scheme. The scheme published success rate is below 5%, making it amongst the toughest in the H2020 suite of schemes. The Proposal, NEUROPA attracting €3.6 million, with €977k going to the Aston team. The NEUROPA consortium has assembled to develop a conceptually novel non-invasive theranostic approach. We will develop a non-invasive system, which modulates long-term activity in specific cortico-sub-cortical networks implicated in specific brain disorders. This will be achieved by two-photon activation of novel phytochrome actuators that control the expression of genes involved in synaptic plasticity. The resulting increase in cortical and subcortical network activity will lead to the long term alleviation of dysfunction using novel phytoptogenetics technology.
5th Summer School on ''Photonics meets Biology''
The 5th summer School on ''Photonics meets Biology'' organized jointly by Prof. E.U. Rafailov (AIPT, UK) with Dr. Maria Farsari (FORTH, Greece) and Dr. Pablo Loza-Alvarez (ICFO, Spain) will take place this year at FORTH ,Heraklion, Crete, Greece between 16-20th September , 2019. The summer School would include Plenary talks by Prof. Yuri Kivshar and Prof. Francesco Pavone. For more details and registration links, please follow the link below :
http://esperia.iesl.forth.gr/~mfarsari/
4th "Photonics Meets Biology" Summer School
Prof. Edik Rafailov jointly with Dr. Pablo Loza-Alvarez (ICFO, Spain) and Prof. Maria Farsari (IESL-FORTH, Greece) are organising the 4th "Photonics Meets Biology" Summer School in Tarragona, Spain, on September 19 - 22, 2017. This event will bring together experts from world-leading academic centres in order to educate students and young researchers in the two cutting-edge fields.
Enhancement of terahertz photoconductive antenna operation by optical nanoantennae
A paper co-authored by Prof. Edik Rafailov, highlighting the novel approach for the enhancement of THz photoconductive antenna operation by using optical nanoantennae, was featured on the front cover of the high impact Laser & Photonics Reviews Journal (No 11(1)/2017).
In this paper, the main results on hybrid THz antennas, comparison of the approaches to their implementation, and further perspectives of their development, including an application of all-dielectric nanoantennas instead of plasmonic ones, have been summarised.
Quantum Dots Offer New Platform for Fingertip Terahertz Devices
Our group developed an antenna that can aid in reducing sources of terahertz radiation down to the size of a fingertip. The antenna is a "sandwich" of semiconductor layers combined with quantum dots. The scientists demonstrated that such antennas can lay foundation for a new type of universal systems that are capable of both transmitting and receiving terahertz radiation. Compact devices, operating at terahertz range, can find applications in medicine and biology for tumor visualization and in aerospace industry for high-speed communication systems. The study was published in Laser & Photonics Reviews.
http://www.opli.net/opli_magazine/eo/2016/quantum-dots-offer-new-platform-for-fingertip-terahertz-devices-nov-news/
InnovateUK funded a feasibility project with CSTG Ltd.
Professor Edik Rafailov is part of a successful InnovateUK funded feasibility project "CoolBlue" worth almost £295k led by Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd. This is a highly innovative project that aims to develop next generation laser technology feasibility for use in the emerging field of quantum sensing.
H2020 EC RISE Scheme: VISGEN project
Professor Edik Rafailov is a partner in a successful consortium led by the University of Birmingham. The team has won an award from the H2020 EC RISE Scheme. The Proposal, VISGEN, attracting €1.26 million, with €126k going to the Aston team.
VISGEN is a multidisciplinary, international and intersectoral collaborative effort that focuses on the personnel exchange between partners located in the EU and Asia. It is designed to develop and disseminate the key enabling photonics technologies to visualise nuclear processes at single gene and single cell levels in intact brains. The delivery of significant advances in the technology of this field necessitates intensive interaction between the academic and commercial sectors to enable researchers to pinpoint gene transcription in living cells. Although this research and knowledge transfer program focuses on the brain, with an interest in nuclear processes in neurons, the technology can be used in any living cells and will be of broad interest to the community.
H2020 Future and Emerging Technology prestigious award "MESO-BRAIN"
Professor Edik Rafailov has won an enormously prestigious award from the EC Future and Emerging Technology (FET) Scheme. The scheme published success rate is below 2%, making it amongst the toughest in the H2020 suite of schemes. The Proposal, MESO-BRAIN, scored a perfect 15/15, attracting €3.3 million, with €840k going to the Aston team of Prof. Edik Rafailov, Dr. Sergei Sokolovski, Dr. Rhein Parri, Dr. David Nagel and Dr. Eric Hill. The project will develop 3D nano-printing technology for functional three-dimensional human stem cell derived neural networks of defined and reproducible architecture, based on that of a brain cortical module that will display in vivo connectivity and activity. Cellular neuroscience research and pharmaceutical drug discovery will be transformed. It is envisaged that within 15 years the stem cell derived neural networks from individual patients will be re-implanted to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia and trauma.
https://www.theengineer.co.uk/3d-nanoprinting-project-aims-to-replicate-neural-networks
http://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=45333.php
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20161208/New-stem-cell-research-project-to-replicate-brains-neural-networks-using-3D-nanoprinting.aspx
https://www.mesobrain.eu/
3rd "Photonics Meets Biology" Summer School
Prof. Edik Rafailov jointly with Dr. Maria Farsari (FORTH, Greece) organised the 3rd "Photonics Meets Biology" Summer School in Crete, Greece, in September 2015 - an event bringing together experts from world-leading academic centres in order to educate students and young researchers in this cutting-edge field. The role of diode lasers in biomedical applications was extensively discussed. A summary of the event has appeared in the recent issue of Nature Photonics (http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v9/n12/full/nphoton.2015.237.html).