4^th International Workshop on "Single Molecule Detection and Ultrasensitive Analysis in the Life Sciences", September 1998

Go directly to:
Aims and Purpose		Invited Speakers		Sponsors
Program		Publication		Call for papers 1999
Information and Correspondence		Next Workshop		Previous Workshop

In the last couple of years, the annual Workshop on SMD, organized by PicoQuant in Berlin, has proven to be an excellent forum for the discussion of SMD in conjunction with Laser Induced Fluorescence . The 4th International Workshop on "Single Molecule Detection and Ultrasensitive Analysis in the Life Sciences" took place 30 September - 2 October 1998 at PicoQuant in the science and technology park Berlin Adlershof.
With 115 participants from the top research groups in SMD as well as from industry the workshop was a great success. This page gives an overview of the workshop as well as some preliminary information about the next workshop.

Aims and Purpose

The past 10 years have seen an ever increasing interest in the detection and spectroscopy of single molecules. Especially in genetic and biochemical screening and assaying, single molecule detection (SMD) under biologically native conditions may become an important issue. The experimental method of choice in SMD is laser-induced fluorescence detection either on surfaces or SMD of freely moving molecules in liquids. In the first case, scanning techniques as Near-Field Scanning Microscopy or Confocal Scanning Microscopy, are the dominating techniques, although interesting results are emerging from the application of ultra-sensitive camera systems. In the second case, the detection of single molecules in microdroplets, in flowing streams, and in (sub) picoliter detection volumes are the main approaches.

The potential applications of SMD are broad and far reaching. One of the most challenging topics is the application of SMD in fast DNA sequencing. In this context, the incorporation of time-resolved techniques in SMD allows very compact measurement systems capable of identifying the four nucleotides in a DNA-sequence according to their fluorescence lifetime. Moreover, a significant increase in the signal-to-noise ratio can be achieved by intelligent data analysis methods, that are taking into account the time behaviour of background signals/impurities.

Already now, first applications have been reported from industry research groups concerning the use of SMD with compact picosecond diode laser systems for genotyping. In the same context, two photon SMD has been reported using blue and green absorbing dyes as marker molecules. Similar techniques may prove very useful when incorporated into miniaturized and/or parallelized systems for capillary electrophoresis, high density micro plate screening etc.

Invited Speakers

Pat Ambrose (Los Alamos, USA)
Christoph Bräuchle (Munich, GERMANY)
Katrin Kneipp (Cambridge/Berlin, GERMANY)
W.E. Moerner (San Diego, USA)
Shuming Nie (Indiana, USA)
Rudolf Rigler (Stockholm, SWEDEN)
Hansgeorg Schindler (Linz, AUSTRIA)
Claus Seidel (Göttingen, GERMANY)

Sponsors

The 4th workshop was sponsored by :

BMG LabTechnologies GmbH
Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH
Hamamatsu Photonics Deutschland GmbH
Hoechst Marion Roussel Deutschland GmbH
Li-Cor Inc.
Nycomed Amersham plc
PicoQuant GmbH
Schering AG

Program

Click the following link to download the program in 'ZIPed' html format.

Publication

Contributions to the Workshop were published in a special issue of the journal Bioimaging (IOP, edited by Prof. T. Jovin, MPI Göttingen).

Previous Workshops

The workshop on "Single Molecule Spectroscopy and Ultra Sensitive Analysis in the Life Sciences" is an annual event since 1995. For further details about each year's event, please select the year from the list below.

Information and Correspondence

Rainer Erdmann, PicoQuant GmbH
Rudower Chaussee 29
12489 Berlin, Germany
Fax: +49 30 6392 6561
e-mail: workshoppicoquant.com

For references to the other workshops and SMD links you may also want to check our SMD page.