Center-Wide

• Broke ground on new CBST building, renovated Hunt Hall facilities which will serve as the new education space on the UC Davis campus.

Science & Technology Program

• The Science and Technology Program has established a weekly Biophotonics Seminar Series that facilitates communication between CBST researchers and with outside researchers.
• We are starting a monthly Director’s Distinguished Lecturer Symposium. Presenters are leading experts in their respective fields and include several Nobel Laureates.
• Center sponsored research in the area of advanced optical imaging has lead to the development and demonstration of a microscopy method called saturated structured illumination. The effort led by the UCSF group within the CBST project “Light Microscopy beyond the Classical Resolution Limit”, demonstrating better than 50nm lateral resolution, the highest resolution ever obtained with an optical farfield microscope.
• A wet photolithographic technique for micro-patterning fluid phospholipid bilayers was demonstrated in which deep ultraviolet radiation lithographic techniques were used to produce highly localized persistent patterns on exposed lipids. Development of these patterned membranes opens many new opportunities for fundamental research into membrane behavior and related applications, including new constructs high through-put membrane-proteomics, biosensor arrays, and spatially directed, aqueous-phase, materials synthesis. This work was performed as part of the CBST project “Understanding and Exploiting Membrane Dynamics. “
• A method of lenless imaging, whereby an image is reconstructed from the diffraction pattern of a nonperiodic object, is currently receiving a lot of interest for its possible use of imaging macromolecules in an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). For the first time, a group of CBST funded researchers demonstrated a reconstruction from an experimental x-ray diffraction pattern, without the need for any extra information about the size and shape of the object as has been required. They have done this by improving the algorithm used for reconstruction. They demonstrated this algorithm on data they recorded at the Advanced Light Source, and will submit these results to Nature magazine. This work was performed as part of the CBST project “Biological Applications of the LCLS X-Ray Source. “
• Jonathan Palley, a Sacramento High School Student, developed a novel software program for transforming optical image data into a format for direct comparison with MR imaging data. It is expected to become a tool to aid physicians in performing cancer studies.

Knowledge Transfer Program

• CBST+City of Sacramento Partnership – a new and unique partnership with the City of Sacramento that will foster expanded collaboration projects with the Center and serve as a model for new company incubation.
• CBST Industry Partners Program (IPP) - 17 new partnerships formed in year-1.
• CBST Technology Showcase – held March 13, this first-ever showcase brought together researchers, students, business people and the financial community to learn about the Center and various opportunities to partner with us.

Education Program

• Science on Saturday Public Lecture (Livermore, CA) - over 300 high school students and teachers attended an hour long exploration of Biophotonics led by a local Bay Area teacher and a CBST LLNL scientist.
• UCD Picnic Day - undergraduate and graduate students enjoyed helping over 400 younger (and older) participants discover secrets of light and color by looking through prisms, drawing the outline of their shadow, observing the world through bubble walls and looking at the world through different colored lenses. Over 22 participants asked to be involved in our future activities.
• Internships and Fellowships - over 20 high-schools, undergraduate and graduate students received research internships or fellowships. Of the group, 5 are members of underrepresented or disadvantaged groups.
• Undergraduate Exploration night at UC Davis - over 75 undergraduates attended a 2-hour exploratory session and over 45 of them asked to be considered for future internships and fellowships.
• Gecko Event - 90 members of the education community representing classroom teachers, community based educators, faculty and administrators from collaborating institutions attended this event to explore potential collaborations. Some of the attendees are now working with the Center or part of on-going discussions for further collaboration.
• Biophotonics Course minority university partner UT at San Antonio (UTSA) – 30 students attended a new course that reviews basic elements of optics and optical sources, lasers and light-emitting solid-state devices in the context of biomedical applications. In-depth coursework in dosimetry, tissue optics, and the principles of laser-tissue interaction.
• Biophotonics track - developed at UC Davis to guide the courses needed by undergraduates interested in pursuing a career in Biophotonics.