The Centre of Biophotonics (CoB) at the University of St Andrews was established in 2019 with the mission of promoting interdisciplinary research and training at the interface between advanced optical imaging, photonics and biomedical sciences. The Centre integrates researchers across four schools (Physics and Astronomy, Medicine, Biology and Psychology and Neuroscience) and builds on existing strengths in the development and application of light based technologies to investigate biological process at molecular, cellular and tissue scales. The CoB brings together more than 20 research groups around three main themes: imaging across temporal and spatial scales, mechanobiology and neurophotonics. Thus, CoB addresses important questions to improve human health including the origins of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, neurological disorders and the advance in the fight against bacterial and viral pathogens. The CoB is also strongly committed to translational research and the dissemination of technologies emerging from the Centre in collaboration with other institutions and industrial partners.
Seeing is believing and light-based imaging technologies are, now more than ever, uniquely positioned to unveil the mechanisms of life as well as disease. Building on more than 20 years of light-based innovation for the biosciences and by collaborating across disciplines and recruiting the best talents, we aim to watch these processes unfolding in real time, from the molecular and cellular scales, to the whole-organism level.
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Latest News
- 1st Joint Biophotonics Webinar Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Centre (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) and the Centre of Biophotonics-CoB (St Andrews)Promoting Light4Life alliances across the atlantic 15th March 2024 14.00-17.00 UK Time https://einsteinmed.zoom.us/j/93406082376
- Lights, lasers and pizza!: Equate MeetUp with Opening Up PhotonicsThis event is open to all women & non-binary students in STEM subjects at Scottish Universities and Colleges. Light and Lasers: Equate MeetUp with Opening Up Photonics Tickets, Mon 20 Nov 2023 at 17:30 | Eventbrite Equate is delighted to be partnering with Opening up Photonics and the St Andrews’ Centre for Biophotonics for our…
- Open: Expressions of interest for PDRA fellowship applications at the CoBThe CoB is currently open to expressions of interest for researchers interested in applying for postdoctoral positions hosted at the Centre of Biophotonics under the Marie Curie PDRA scheme and the Royal Society Newton International Fellowship Scheme. Contact us as quickly as possible, more information can be found here
Next BioLIGHT CoB Seminar:
Activatable fluorescent probes for imaging cellular function in real time
Speaker: Prof Marc Vendrell
Chair of Translational Chemistry and Biomedical Imaging
Centre for Inflammation Research and IRR Chemistry Hub, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Host: Prof Carlos Penedo
6th November 2024, 1 pm, BMS Seminar Room
Fluorescent activatable probes are valuable tools for live-cell imaging because of their tunability and target specificity.1 Our group has designed fluorogenic amino acids and peptides for high-resolution biological imaging and translational medicine. Our team have demonstrated that this approach can generate probes to visualize infectious pathogens (e.g., fungal pathogens in ex vivo human lung tissue2) and subsets of immune cells in live cells and in vivo3 and in ex vivo human biopsies.4 We have designed our fluorescent amino acids to: 1) be compatible with conventional solid-phase peptide synthesis, 2) maintain the biomolecular recognition features of the native peptides and 3) emit fluorescence preferentially after target binding, improving signal-to-noise ratios for imaging. Furthermore, we have reported fluorogenic analogues with emission >600 nm to prepare of cyclic peptides for imaging tumor cells using multiphoton imaging in vivo.5 Recently, we have extended the toolbox with smaller amino acids, which include the first phenylalanine-based fluorogenic building blocks for detection of urinary tract Candida infections,6 the smallest turn-on fluorescent amino acids for peptide-PAINT imaging and super-resolution microscopy,7 and to fluorogenic tags for small proteins associated with immune cell function like interleukins and cyclophillins.8,9
[1] Nat. Rev. Chem. 2020, 4, 275; [2] Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 10940; [3] Nat. Commun. 2020, 11, 4027; [4] Nat. Commun. 2022, 13, 2366; [5] a) Chem. Sci. 2020, 11, 1368; b) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e20211302; [6] Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202117218; [7] Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202216231; [8] ACS Cent. Sci. 2024, 10, 143; [8] ACS Cent. Sci. 2024, 10, 969.
His full profile can be found here: