principles of fluorescence techniques 2009

Prof. A. Ulises Acuña
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
Instituto de Química Física
119 Serrano
E-28006 Madrid
Spain
Tel: +34 (1) 561 9400
Email

Dr. Acuña graduated in Chemistry from the University of Santiago (Spain) in 1966 and received his doctoral degree from the University Complutense of Madrid in 1970. Since 1972 he has held a permanent position at the Institute of Physical Chemistry (C.S.I.C., Madrid) where he created the Department of Biophysics (1989) and served as Director (1992-1993). He was educated in time-resolved spectroscopic methods by Prof. D. Husain and Dr. J. R. Wiesefeld at the Physical Chemistry Department of Cambridge University (U.K.), in biological applications of fluorescence by Prof. J. Yguerabide (University of San Diego, La Jolla, U.S.A.), and in emission anisotropy by Prof. K. Razi Naqvi from the Physics Department of Trondheim University (Norway).

Areas of interest. Elementary processes in photophysics and laser spectroscopy. Photochemistry of bacteriorhodopsin. Protein luminescence and molecular hydrodynamics. Fluorescent probes for lipid bilayers and cell membranes. Design and synthesis of fluorescent labels for biomedical applications. Plant fluorophores in the history of fluorescence.

Dr. Beniamino Barbieri
ISS, Inc.
President
1602 Newton Dr.
Champaign, IL 61822
USA
Tel: 217-359-8681
Email

Dr. Valeria Caiolfa
CNIC
Microscopy and Dynamic Imaging
Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3
E-28029 Madrid
Spain
Tel: +34 (91) 4531323/9; ext:2206-2207
Email

Valeria R. Caiolfa was born in Italy and received her doctorate degree in Chemistry from Ben Gurion University in Israel. She is a group leader at the Molecular Oncology Department of the San Raffaele Research Institute in Milan, Italy. Since 2008 she has been coordinating the activities of the Microscopy and Dynamic Imaging Unit at the CNIC (Fundación Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III) in Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Caiolfa's research interests are in the area of membrane receptors and cell signaling in carcinogenesis. Her current projects on GPI-anchored proteins, growth factor receptors and cytoskeleton adaptors involve the use of TIRF imaging and two-photon microscopy including FCS, PCH/N&B and FLIM for studying the protein dynamics and the signaling of multi-molecular complexes in real-time and in live cells.

Prof. Enrico Gratton
University of California, Irvine
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Irvine, CA 92697-2715
USA
Tel: 949-824-2674
Email

Enrico Gratton was born in Merate (Como) Italy in 1946. He received his doctorate degree in physics from the University of Rome in 1969. From 1969 to 1971 he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy. He went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1976 and began his work as a research associate in the Department of Biochemistry. In 1978, he was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Physics of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). In 1989, he was promoted to professor. Dr. Gratton's laboratory has reached international recognition for the development of instrumentation for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy using frequency domain methods.

In 1986, Dr. Gratton was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources, to establish the first national facility dedicated to fluorescence spectroscopy: the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD). In 2006 the entire LFD laboratory moved to its current location at the new Natural Sciences II building at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Gratton remains Principal Investigator of the LFD and holds joint appointments as Professor in the UCI departments of Biomedical Engineering and Physics, and also in the College of Medicine. The facility is a state-of-the-art fluorescence laboratory for use by local, national, and international scientists. It has a dual and equal commitment to research and development of fluorescence instrumentation and theory and to service in a user-oriented facility. Dr. Gratton's research interests are varied and many; they include design of new fluorescence instruments, protein dynamics, hydration of proteins, and I.R. spectroscopy of biological substances. Dr. Gratton has authored or co-authored over 400 publications in refereed scientific journals.

Prof. David M. Jameson
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology
John A. Burns School of Medicine
Honolulu, HI 96822
USA
Tel: 808-956-5034
Email

A student of the late Prof. Gregorio Weber, David Jameson is Full Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hawaii. Prof. Jameson's research interests are focused on the development and application of time-resolved and steady-state fluorescence methodologies to elucidate dynamic aspects of biomolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids and membrane systems.

Currently, his laboratory is investigating several protein systems, including both prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomal proteins, the GTP binding protein dynamin, the motor protein kinesin and Electron Transfer Flavoprotein (ETF). One of his laboratory's principle approaches is to use site-directed mutagenesis techniques to incorporate cysteine residues into target proteins, which can then be linked to sulfhydryl reactive fluorescence probes. Fluorescence measurements can then be used to quantify dynamic aspects of these proteins during their interactions with physiologically significant ligands.

Author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, Prof. Jameson regularly reviews grants for the American Heart Association, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation. His research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Prof. Don Lamb
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie I
Butenandtstr. 11
D-81377 München
Germany
Tel: 089/2180-77564
Email

Prof. Don C. Lamb has been working in the Department of Physical Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany, since 2003, being promoted to a full professor in Dec. 2007. He is also a full member of the Center for Nanoscience (CeNS) and Bioimaging Network (BIN) in Munich, Germany.

Prof. Don C. Lamb received his doctorate degree in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1993. Afterwards, he worked in several renown Universities in the US. and Germany.

Currently, Prof. Lamb's research areas are, among others, fluorescence and single molecule methods to investigate the dynamics and functions of biomolecules. He is interested in developing and improving ultrasensitive fluorescence methods, performing quantitative analyses and applying these methods to investigate biological systems.

Prof. Catherine Royer
CNRS
Centre de Biochimie Structurale
29, route de Navacelles
34090 Montpellier CEDEX
France
Tel: +33-04 67 41 79 02
Email

Catherine Royer is Director of Research at INSERM and Director of the Center for Structural Biochemistry in Montpellier, an INSERM-CNRS-University of Montpellier 1 and 2 mixed research unit. She is a Visiting Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Biophysics and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her research interests involve the use of fluorescence spectroscopic methods to characterize structure-function-dynamics relationships in biomolecules.

Dr. Royer obtained her Ph.D. in 1985 in the Department of Biochemistry in the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the direction of Professor Gregorio Weber. She carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of Paris 7, the CNRS at Gif-sur-Yvette and at LURE under the direction of Bernard Alpert, Guy Hervé and Jean-Claude Brochon. She then took a position as User Coordinator and Research Physicist at the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics in the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. In 1990 she moved to an Assistant Professorship in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1995. In 1997 she took the position of INSERM Director of Research in the Center for Structural Biochemistry in Montpellier.

Dr. Royer has published extensively in the field of pressure effects on biomolecular structure and interactions and on use of state of the art fluorescence approaches applied to understanding the physical basis for the control of transcription. She has served on numerous review panels (United States National Science Foundation Biophysics Panel, CNRS Section 21, Comité de Programme Biologie LURE, French Agence National pour la Recherche -- Physique et Chimie pour le Vivant) and the councils of national and international biophysical societies.

Dr. Susana Sánchez Donoso
University of California, Irvine
Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics
Irvine, CA 92697-2715
USA
Tel: 949-824-3255
Email

Susana Sánchez was born in Chile and received her doctorate degree in Chemistry from the Catholic University of Valparaiso. In 1997, she joined the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a post doctoral fellow. Since 2001 she has been the User Coordinator of the LFD.

Dr. Sánchez's research interests are in the area of protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions. Her current projects involve the use of two-photon microscopy, including FCS and Laurdan GP imaging for the study of cholesterol removal by HDL particles from artificial systems such as Giant Unilamellar Vesicles (GUVs) and cells.

Prof. Francisco Sanchez-Madrid
CNIC
Immunology
Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3
E-28029 Madrid
Spain
Tel: +34 91 4531200
Email

Prof. Sanchez-Madrid is Head of the Immunology Unit of the Hospital Universitario de la Princesa and joined the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in January 2007.

Prof. Martin vandeVen
trans-National University Limburg (tUL)
Biomedical Research Institute
B-3590 Diepenbeek
Belgium
Tel: 0032-(0)11-268558
Email

Areas of Interest:

Multi-parameter fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy, remote sensing, imaging techniques, optical multi-photon spectroscopy, statistical image analysis, instrumentation development.

Biographical Sketch:

Dr. vandeVen received his Doctoral Degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands in 1983. From 1983 – 1998 he was subsequently employed as a research physicist with focus on instrument design at the Biophysics department of Leiden University, The Netherlands; The Biology department of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) at the Physics department of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA and ISS. Inc. Champaign, IL., USA. In the latter position he managed customer support and took part in on-site training of scientists at the yearly fluorescence course of the Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy (CFS), Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA. Since the end of 1998 at Limburgs University Center (LUC) in Diepenbeek, Belgium he held research, consulting and instrument development positions in the Biology department, the Institute of Materials Research and currently at the Biomedical Institute. At the moment he is managing the instrument development section of the confocal microscopy – microfluorimetry group of the LUC cell physiology section while conducting interdisciplinary fluorescence and interface spectroscopy research on apoptotic processes and stress in various cell lines linked to human autoimmune diseases eg. Multiple Sclerosis related Oligodendrocyte cells, on protein dynamics, transport and (a)biotic stress monitored via the expression of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in animal and plant tissues, as well as on optical and electronic characterization of immobilized molecules for integrated biosensor designs based on conjugated polymers and CVD deposited thin diamond films.

Recent literature references:

1. Smets, I.; Caplanusi, A.; Despa, S.; Molnar, Sz.; Radu, M.; vandeVen, M.; Ameloot, M.; and Steels, P. Ca2+ uptake in depolarized mitochondria is mediated via the reversed action of the mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchanger in metabolically inhibited MDCK cells. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 286: F784–F794, 2004
2. Wenmackers, S.; Haenen, K; Nesládek, M.; Wagner, P.; Michiels, L.; vandeVen, M. and Ameloot, M. Covalent immobilization of DNA on CVD diamond films. Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 199, 1, 44-48, 2003.