New in the lab: Iván Martínez

We welcome Iván Martí­nez who joins VioBio Lab under the Industrial Doctorate Program funded by Madrid Regional Government. The program aims at strengthening the competitiveness of Madrid companies by promoting effective collaboration and knowledge transfer between the academic world and the business world.

Iván holds a BSc in Physics and MSc in Advanced Materials, from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and has remarkable experience in programming and consulting. He will give technical assistance in the evaluation of SimVis technology in a clinical environment for the simulation of multifocal corrections for presbyopia.

Extraordinary outreach activities around optics and light: a book and a course

Researchers from VioBio Lab coordinate two outreach activities that well approach optics and light in general, and visual optics and vision in particular to general audiences. 

Editorial CSIC and Libros de la Catarata have published the book “Descubriendo la luz: experimentos divertidos de optica”, coordinated by Maria Viñas, and contributed by members of VioBio Lab, Instituto de Óptica and IOSA Student Chapter. The book addresses fascinating questions involving optics and light and their applications, and presents dozens of affordable experiments to make at school or at home. Learn more about this work in CSIC Press Release. 

The book (in Spanish) is available through Editorial CSIC website and can be purchased here.

In addition, researchers from VioBio Lab organize the course “Aprendiendo a enseñar ciencia de forma divertida” showcasting optical experiments and providing high school teachers with new resources for the science classroom. The course is directed by María Viñas, Clara Benedí and Susana Marcos, sponsored by the Fundación CSIC Program Cuenta la Ciencia 2018,  and will count with numerous guest speakers, including the well-known science disseminator Pere Estupinya. The course program can be found here.

Experimental validations of a tunable-lens based visual demonstrator of multifocal corrections, published in Biomedical Optics Express

The Simultaneous Vision simulator (SimVis) is a visual demonstrator of multifocal lens designs for prospective intraocular lens replacement surgery patients and contact lens wearers. In this manuscript we show the improvement of the SimVis temporal representation of specific multifocal designs by an iterative approach and by implementation of correction of dynamic effects.

The study is published in Biomedical Optics Express, and is co-authored by VioBio Lab and spin-off 2EyesVision SL. 

Full reference: Vyas Akondi, Lucie Sawides, Yassine Marrakchi, Enrique Gambra, Susana Marcos and Carlos Dorronsoro, “Experimental validations of a tunable-lens-based visual demonstrator of multifocal corrections,” Biomed. Opt. Express 9, 6302-6317 (2018).

Full text here.

New in the lab: Ashik Mohamed

We welcome Ashik Mohamed to VioBio Lab, for a research stay in the context of a CSIC iCoop Cooperative Project. Ashik is a principal investigator in the LV Prasad Eye  Institute, Hyderabad (India), where he is working on the understanding of the optical quality of the crystalline lens and its restoration.  Ashik holds a degree in Medicine, and a Masters in Medical Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.  

Ashik will be working with VioBio Lab on crystalline lens properties, aging  and accommodation.

New in the lab: Néstor Uribe-Patarroyo

We welcome Néstor Uribe-Patarroyo, a Instructor at Harvard Medical School, who is visiting VioBio Lab through a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Collaborative Research Travel Grant.  He is permanently located at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (USA) since 2012. Before joining Wellman, he was working on classical and quantum remote sensing at Boston University (USA) and Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA, Spain). He will be exploring collaborative projects on OCT velocimetry for the determination of corneal biomechanics.

VIOBIO Lab has hosted two European Project Meetings in the last weeks: MyFun Marie Curie ITN and IMCUSTOMEYE H2020 Innovation Action Meeting

The first commercialization meeting of the H2020 Innovation Action IMCUSTOMEYE took place last week at the Institute of Optics (CSIC) led by IROC Science. The IMCUSTOMEYE consortium consists of 10 partners, from 6 different countries and different fields, academic, clinical and industrial. 

The IMCUSTOMEYE project will develop a new optical imaging system that will allow to obtain biomarkers to improve diagnosis of certain ocular pathologies, and the development of customize treatments such as refractive surgery, cataract surgery and corneal treatments. The new instrument will provide biomechanical parameters, which will allow to plan treatments based on the prediction of the corneal response. 

VioBio Lab also hosted the MSC ITN MyFun Summer School and Annual Meeting (16-19 October) in Madrid. The program was focused on applications of optical technologies in ophthalmology and novel treatments for myopia. The meeting included invited lectures and talks from MyFun Marie Curie Principal Investigators, VioBio Lab Members and Predoctoral Fellows, as well as an outreach activity by IOSA Student Chapter.

MyFUN (“Myopia: Fundamental Understanding Needed”) is an In Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020, comprising 7 European universities, research institutions and companies. The project envisages a wide variety of activities such as secondments, training modules, conferences and summer schools with the aim of training ESR in the field of myopia.

 

Corneal wound healing following in vivo Rose Bengal-Green Light and Riboflavin-UVA CXL, published in IOVS

A new collaborative study between Universidad de Valladolid Wellman Center of Photomedicine (Harvard-MGH) and VioBio Lab (CSIC) reports corneal would healing changes (corneal and epithelium thickness, cell death and proliferation and differentiation to myofibroblasts following two corneal cross-linking modalities in vivo (0 to 60 days post-surgery). UVX produced deeper and longer-lasting cell damage compared to RGX indicating a slower cell repopulation after UVX and other differences in healing. This additional advantage of RGX adds to previously reported shallower damage and a shorter treatment time and effective stiffening. 

The study has been published in the current issue of IOVS. 

Full reference: Elvira Lorenzo-Martín; Patricia Gallego-Muñoz; Lucía Ibares-Frías; Susana Marcos; Pablo Pérez-Merino; Itziar Fernández; Irene E. Kochevar; M. Carmen Martínez-García. Rose Bengal and Green Light Versus Riboflavin–UVA Cross-Linking: Corneal Wound Repair Response, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science October 2018, Vol.59, 4821-4830.

Full article: https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2705917