New medical diagnostics, drug delivery methods, and a microscope for space at the optics/lasers conference press luncheon

Press luncheon speakers will present some of the newest and most interesting topics of the 2001 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science (CLEO/QELS) meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The luncheon will take place on Tuesday, May 8 at 11:30 AM in Room 331 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Reporters wishing to attend should fill out the reply form at the end of this release or contact Ben Stein (bstein@aip.org, 301-209-3091)

CLEO/QELS PRESS LUNCHEON
Room 331
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland
Tuesday, May 8
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Monitoring Coronary Stents with OCT
Brett Bouma
Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
617-726-9007, 617-726-8290
bouma@helix.mgh.harvard.edu

Wire mesh tubes, known as stents, keep arteries open following balloon catheter treatments to expand coronary vessels clogged with plaque. Between 20 and 30% of patients suffer from restenosis - the growth of new tissue within the stent that may again clog arteries - within six months after the placement of a stent. Often, the status of coronary stents is monitored with intravascular ultrasound, but the diagnostic tool lacks resolution to clearly reveal emerging difficulties. Brett Bouma and coworkers at the Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine and Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School have developed an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) catheter to provide improved images of stented arteries. OCT is a technique similar to ultrasound, but uses infrared light rather than acoustic waves to generate images that depict features as small as 10 millionths of a meter across. Bouma will give an overview of OCT catheter imaging and the potential of the technology to provide improved diagnostics following treatments for atherosclerosis, the leading cause of death in western industrialized countries.

Nanoshells for Drug Delivery and Immunoassays
Naomi Halas
Rice University
713-348-5611
halas@rice.edu

Nanoshells are tiny, layered spheres that provide new opportunities for biotechnological procedures ranging from cancer therapy to medical testing and drug delivery. The spheres are tailored to absorb specific colors of light by controlling the thickness of the nanoparticles' layers. Nanoshells engineered to absorb light in the near infrared spectrum hold particular promise for medical use because such wavelengths penetrate several centimeters into the human body. Naomi Halas will discuss nanoshell-based drug delivery, diagnostics, and other applications of the technology.

Space Station Microscope
Andrew Resnick
Logicon Federal Data
216-925-1151
aresnick@cleveland.feddata.com

The International Space Station will contain a state-of-the-art microscope with some new features never previously available on a space mission. The microscope will be used initially for four materials science experiments, some of which may ultimately identify useful materials that can be grown in a low-gravity environment. Biology experiments are envisioned as well. Andrew Resnick will give an overview of the microscope and specifically address its integral laser tweezers, which are designed to hold and move microscopic particles as small as 2 microns in diameter, less than half the size of a red blood cell.

PRESS LUNCHEON REPLY FORM
CLEO/QELS 2001, May 6-11, 2001
Please return this form to Ben Stein at bstein@aip.org or by fax at 301-209-0846

___Please sign me up for the CLEO/QELS press luncheon.

___Please send me the general press release for the meeting.

___I cannot attend but please send me additional materials as they become available.

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