UCF partnership focuses on biophotonics A research partnership between the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine and CREOL, the College of Optics and Photonics, is helping scientists use light to learn how cells move during normal development and in disease. The joint project, called RIBOP (Research Initiative in Biophotonics), was initiated after both colleges and the UCF Office of Research and Commercialization each contributed $15,000 to identify biological applications for photonics and lasers. Dr. Cristina Fernandez-Valle, a professor in the College of Medicine’s Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Aristide Dogariu, a professor at CREOL, were the first team to receive RIBOP funding. The researchers have published one paper and are now applying for a National Institutes of Health grant to continue their work. “When you put people with different specialties and skills together, you never know what’s going to happen,” Fernandez-Valle said. “It’s a great opportunity to jump-start ideas.” Medical implants micromachined with fs laser Spectra-Physics, Innovative Laser Technologies (ILT) and Palmaz Scientific have demonstrated femtosecond laser micromachining of next-generation implantable medical devices. Using Spectra-Physics’ Spirit industrial femtosecond laser and ILT’s VersaSTC precision machining system, Palmaz Scientific demonstrated the fabrication of leading-edge implantable stents with extremely fine and advanced surface nanotechnologies for exceptional biocompatibility, the companies say. The partners worked closely to develop a customized system to take advantage of Palmaz’s proprietary and disruptive technologies. The system showed that it can maintain the precise tolerances necessary for the very fine structures.