Your time and dedication. The BioBrillouin Meeting is free of charge this year. Registration before the deadline is however required.

If you submitted an abstract for an oral presentation, on the 21st September 2021 and via email (if you have not heard from us by the 23rd September, contact us ASAP at the below email address). If you have submitted a poster abstract, you will hear from us within 2 days of submission.

Yes. We congratulate you in advance for being so productive during a by all measures very difficult year.

Yes, it requires a separate application via the above link (“Apply for Training School“). Conversely, if you apply for the training school you are also not automatically registered for the BBM5 meeting (the two should be considered as separate events that just happen to be back-to-back).

The fact that you got this far down the page means that you are at least slightly interested (or curious), so an explanation is in order. Brillouin Light Scattering (or Mandelstam-Brillouin Light Scattering), involves the inelastic scattering of light from collective high-frequency (~GHz) density fluctuations. BLS spectroscopy concerns itself with measuring the energy and lifetime of these fluctuations, which in turn can be used to extract the viscoelastic properties of a material. It was theoretically predicted and observed already around a century ago (next year actually marks an anniversary). Following the commercialization of lasers, it has become a routine, albeit somewhat niche, tool in the physical sciences. It was only over the last decade that instrumentation has become conducive to performing routine microscopic imaging of living biological systems. This has opened up a Pandora’s box of questions, challenges and opportunities. 

Despite the huge potential that one can guess comes with being able to label-free all-optically map the viscoelasticity in 3D (driven also by the rapidly growing fields of mechanobiology and biomechanics), “BioBrillouin” is still in its infancy and not without its growing pains. On the one hand, BLS instrumentation is still not always gentle enough, fast enough or user-friendly enough for many life science and medical applications. On the other hand, interpretation of the measured quantities in complex active materials is all but trivial, and can require other unkown a priori information which in certain cases may be extracted using complementary methods. While undeniably establishing a bottom-up sound foundation for the significance of the measured quantities in biological processes is important, the application of BLS microscopy to more and more biological and biomedical systems can also provide insight into its significance, as well as to uncover potential biomedical and phenotyping applications that may in of themselves lead to application with health/societal/technological benefits. 

With all these challenges/questions/opportunities in mind, the BioBrillouin Network was formed in 2016 by some dedicated individual and, funded by some generous EU grants, has met annually to present progress in these areas, stimulate conversation and promote collaborations. This meeting marks the continuation of this network. (You can still join the network HERE and get on the mailing list). Every year the network also organizes a hands-on training school at a separate date and venue, which introduces the technicalities and principles of BLS for life science applications to those new to the field. This year the plan was to have them back-to-back to “save travel costs” (and thereby also the environment). This of course proved to be redundant with the required virtual nature of both events.

Yes, really. Our current funding for these events is slowly drying up and we–like every blue-eyed teenager leaving home for the first time–need to learn to stand on our own two feet, and find a way to somehow support ourselves also financially if we want to continue the way we did. The establishment of an independent legal entity seems the logical progression and long-term solution (although we will not hesitate to jump at any suitable funding opportunities that present themselves). This has of course been pioneered in other, conceptually not too different, fields (Raman/vibrational spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, etc.). The BioBrillouin Society is just that. Following extensive surveys, the Core Group of the BioBrillouin Network have spent the last year exploring the logistics, financial and legal details, and have come up with a suitable framework in line with what is desired by the majority of the network, and flexible to evolutions the field may undergo in the coming years. This will be presented at the BBM5 meeting.

No, given there are no travel expenses. The fact that it is free for you (despite the never-the-less significant organizational costs) is in our opinion a luxury, for which you should thank our generous sponsors.