Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe

42 Towards 2020 – Photonics driving economic growth in Europe
Biophotonic technologies
and methods will lead to
improved diagnosis and
therapy. © IPHT Jena
ate water and food with regard to quality and potential
microbial contaminations. The methods that
would be employed for this could be essentially the
same as used for advanced screening, perhaps with
minor adaptations for the specific target. There is
considerable synergy with the sensing requirements
for Work Group 5 Security: Metrology and Sensors,
and it is therefore anticipated that there will be
common solutions, making close collaboration in
this field highly beneficial.
Involvement of value chain partners
Biophotonics in itself is already a highly multidisciplinary
field, involving physicists, chemists,
and engineers as method and technology developers,
as well as end-users from the fields of biology
and medicine. To some degree, industry already
reflects this diversity, comprising component and
system developers, as well as full solution providers.
Over the last few years, component developers
have shown a growing awareness of the increasing
importance of Biophotonics, and this has been
reflected in the growing level of revenues generated
in this field. The frontiers between system
developers and full solution providers often become
blurred, particularly with the growing realisation
that the end-users of Biophotonic technologies
generally prefer purchasing everything from a single
source. Since most of the Biophotonic technologies
and methods are, with the exception of conventional
microscopes or current X-ray machines, still
relatively new, the leading medical device manufacturers
have to date shown relatively little interest,
and so have limited market presence in this sector.
A major breakthrough for Biophotonics in the
medical devices market would require a significant
increase in the involvement of these companies.
Similarly, the early and substantial involvement of
the potential end-users, especially that of physicians
and clinicians, at all stages of development
will be of utmost importance. The involvement of
end-users will be critical for the development of
solutions tailored to fit their specific needs. Such
direct involvement will greatly help maximise the
integration of new tools and techniques within
the established process flow employed in the clinical
environment. The involvement of end-users is
generally not an easy task, especially for clinicians,
as their steadily increasing burden limits the time
available, and their focus on patient welfare tends
to result in a relatively conservative attitude to
new approaches. This activity would be strengthened
by extending the ongoing collaboration with
the Nanomedicine European Technology Platform
(ETP), though additional measures would also be
Left and Right: Photonic imaging
of tissue samples. © BioImaging
Zentrum (BIZ), LMU München