Seminar - Studying the Skin with Spectroscopy and Imaging
Date: April 15, 2005
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Bossone Research Enterprise Center, Room: 1st Flr. Auditorium
Speaker(s):
Nikiforos Kollias, Ph.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Johnson & Johnson
Consumer & Personal Products Worldwide
Details:
Skin is perceived through sight and touch, therefore optical diagnostics may attempt to provide a measure of one dimension of the skin's status. Imaging produces information that most closely approximates visual appearance, where specialized imaging with polarized light or in fluorescence mode yields considerably more information about the status of the skin. Combinations of reflectance and fluorescence imaging provide an impressive amount of information, especially when the images are obtained in rapid succession to minimize artifacts due to motion.
Imaging provides detailed information about concentration and distribution of absorbers and fluorescing species on or in the skin. Precise identification of the chemical species responsible for absorption or fluorescence requires the use of spectroscopy to identify the species through their spectroscopic signatures. Dynamic changes in concentration or distribution of absorbing and fluorescing species may be used to dynamically quantify skin reactions to insults or to disease.
Finally, spectroscopy and imaging may be combined in spectral imaging to provide information on concentration and distribution of the chemical species that are responsible for skin appearance. Accurate documentation of the skin requires an additional step: a record of its 3-dimensional shape, since the skin is never flat.
Biosketch:
Dr. Kollias received his A.B. in Physics from UCLA and his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming. After five years of teaching and research in low temperature physics and Raman Scattering at the University of Wyoming, he joined the staff at the University of Kuwait. At Kuwait, he taught and conducted research in physics and developed a laboratory for human photobiology. Dr. Kollias also developed treatment protocols for phototherapy for psoriasis and vitiligo, as well as methods to study constitutive and facultative human pigmentation. He then joined the staff at the Wellman Laboratory, Department of Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School. During his 10-year stay there, he did research on human photobiology, ultraviolet (UV) phototherapy, photodynamic therapy, as well as skin spectroscopy in the UV, both visible and infrared. While at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Kollias participated in numerous clinical investigations and trained research several fellows.
In 1999, Dr. Kollias joined Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Products Worldwide as a Senior Research Fellow, heading the Methods and Models group. The primary function of the group is to develop optical techniques to assess skin structure and function, as well as developing light-based therapies.
Dr. Kollias has published more than 100 papers, holds numerous patents, and has won many industrial awards from several professional societies. He has often been an invited speaker, guest lecturer, and a chairperson in many symposi and workshops. Dr. Kollias has twice been awarded the Johnson & Johnson Excellence in Science Award, the latest being in 2004.
Directions:
The Bossone Research Enterprise Center is located on Market Street, between 31st and 32nd Streets.
|
