The Institut de la Màcula and the ICFO report to ACCIÓ on the status of the LITE European project

The Institut de la Màcula (IM) has received a visit last week from the Agency for Business Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia (ACCIÓ) in the form of   Mariona Sanz and Eugenia Guerrero, the Director of the Business Innovation Unit and the Director of R&D Business Projects, respectively. The two guests met the heads of the IM and the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) to assess the status of implementation of the LITE European project, in which ACCIÓ and European Union are participants.

This meeting of the Catalan partners in LITE —a project in which Italy’s Construzione Strumenti Oftalmici (CSO), Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO) and Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara (IFAC) also take part- provided the ACCIÓ representatives with first-hand information on the programme. It also gave them the opportunity to study the complex and unique system which combines AOSLO (adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy) with corneal imaging system with second harmonic generation (SHG), developed ad hoc by the IM and ICFO medical and research teams. Constructed through the collaboration and knowledge transfer between all the partners, the equipment provides high resolution images of retinal photoreceptors and corneal fibres.

The visitors from the Catalan Government agency also took advantage to explain the instruments and services they place at the disposal of the companies that develop innovative projects.

This project is being developed in collaboration with the ICFO – the Institute of Photonic Sciences – together with Construzione Strumenti Oftalmici (CSO), the Istituto Nazionale di Ottica (INO) and the Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara (IFAC). It is co-financed by Acció (the Agency for Business Competitiveness) and the European Union through the Seventh Framework Programme of Research and Technological Development, specifically the BiophotonicsPlus project, which aims to promote R&D in the field of photonics.

Biophotonics is an area of multidisciplinary research that utilises light-based technologies. This is a springboard for Catalonia’s future and is expected to have a major impact on the agents participating in the development phase of the technologies and in their application. The participation in the “Development of Advanced Laser Imaging Techniques for the Anterior and Posterior Eye” project makes the Institut de la Màcula one of the leading ophthalmological centres in this area.