Brunel University of London, Michael Sterling Building, Wilfred Brown, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK.
The HILIGHT 2026: FLIM & Photonics meeting was held on 4-5 March 2026 at Brunel University of London, bringing together researchers and industry partners from across the UK and EU to discuss advances in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), laser technologies, and fast detector systems.
The meeting formed part of the Horizon Europe HILIGHT project and supported dissemination and collaboration in photonics-enabled cancer diagnostics. Discussions covered laser source development, SPAD-based detection, and FLIM applications in biological systems
Across Europe, one FLIM community
Key Outcomes
Scientific and Technical
- End-to-end discussion across the photonics to biomedical pipeline (lasers → detectors → FLIM applications)
- Strong focus on instrumentation challenges, system integration, and real-world implementation
- Exchange of experimental methods, data analysis approaches, and measurement limitations
Cross-sector Integration
- Active interaction between academia and industry across all sessions
- Direct alignment between technology development and application needs
- Industry participation enabled discussion on practical constraints and translation pathways
(Aligned with project HILIGHT objective of bridging lab-to-application gaps )
Collaboration Outcomes
Early-stage collaboration discussions initiated, including:
- Joint experimental studies
- Access to specialised equipment
- Co-authored publications
- Future funding proposals
- Cross-project engagement established with flIMAGIN3D doctoral network
Participation and Reach
- 61 in-person attendees from 17 institutions across 6 countries
- Majority external participation (54 non-consortium attendees)
- Balanced mix of Early-career researcher, Senior academics, Industry professionals
Early-Career Researcher Participation
- 8 flash talks and 16 posters delivered by early-career researchers
- Direct engagement with senior researchers and industry
- Feedback and visibility embedded within main programme (not isolated track)
Networking and Engagement
- Sustained technical discussions during poster sessions and informal settings
- High engagement across sessions, extending beyond scheduled programme
- Format supported depth (technical detail) and span (cross-discipline links)
Project Impact (Horizon Europe alignment)
- Strengthened dissemination of HILIGHT technologies and capabilities
- Increased visibility to external academic and industrial stakeholders
- Established conditions for future collaboration and knowledge exchange
- Supported development of photonics tools for cancer diagnostics and biomedical research
Event Sustainability efforts
- Implemented measures aligned with European Commission guidance on sustainable events, including plastic-free badges, digital materials, and promotion of public and rail transport, resulting in an estimated 248 kg CO₂ reduction (~7%) compared to a baseline scenario (3.74 t CO₂), with total emissions of 3.49 t CO₂.
Resources
- Event Programme:
- Selected presentations: Dr Claudio Bruschini, EPFL, Switzerland: One photon at a time – CMOS SPAD imagers for FLIM and beyond.
- More Photos
Main Sponsors
HILIGHT2026: FLIM & Photonics was supported by PicoQuant and Laser 2000 as Main Sponsors, two organisations with long-standing involvement in fluorescence lifetime imaging and photonics technologies.
As part of the event, the Main Sponsor PicoQuant contributeb a technical bite talk, sharing perspectives on measurement challenges, practical approaches, and emerging directions that complement the overall programme.
We also acknowledge TOPTICA for its support as a Supporting Sponsor.
We also acknowledge MicroscopeHeaters for its support as a Contributor Sponsor.
Together, these contributions enable the delivery of a high-quality scientific programme and facilitates engagement between academics and industrial researchers.
Confirmed Speakers
- Dr Thomas Blacker, University College London, UK
- Dr Falk Schneider, University of Warwick, UK
- Dr Sara Pellegrini, STMicroelectronics, UK
- Dr Claudio Bruschini, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
- Prof Simon Ameer-Beg, King’s College London,UK
- Dr Simon Poland, King’s College London, UK
- Dr Joëlle Goulding, University of Nottingham, UK
- Prof Banafshe Larijani, University of Bath, UK
- Prof Ruslan Dmitriev, Ghent University, Belgium
- Dr Conor Treacy, Brunel University of London, UK
- Dr Isabel Groß, PicoQuant GmbH, Germany
- Prof Marina Kuimova, Imperial College London, UK
- Dr Sylvain Boust, III-V Lab, France
- Dr Leonardo Gasparini, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy
- Dr Gunnar Blume, Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH), Germany
- Prof Gail McConnell, University of Strathclyde, UK
- Prof Amanda J. Wright, University of Nottingham, UK
Speaker Bios and Titles
Selected presentation materials will be made available where permitted.
Speaker 1
Meet Dr Thomas Blacker.
He is a Lecturer in Cellular Biochemistry in the Research Department of Structural and Molecular Biology within UCL’s Division of Biosciences. He studied Physics at the University of Exeter, including a year abroad at the University of Sydney. He then joined the Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the Life Sciences and Experimental Biology (CoMPLEX) at UCL, where he conducted his PhD research within the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Cell and Developmental Biology. Recently, he completed a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship, which supported the establishment of his research group. The group focuses on developing and applying quantitative methods to study metabolism in living systems, with particular emphasis on the interplay between biochemistry and photophysics in fluorescent probes.
His Talk: Biochemical mechanisms controlling metabolic sensitivity in autofluorescence
Speaker 2
Meet Professor Banafshé Larijani.
She leads the newly formed international Consortium for Precision Health at University of Bath (CPH), with the vision to be the flagship of precision translational research at University of Bath, where academics and clinicians/surgeons work symbiotically, to succeed in delivering personalised treatment to patients. She was the Chair of the Centre for Therapeutics Innovation (CTI) at the University of Bath (2019-2025); an internationally faced research and innovation Centre with the mission to transform innovation, arising from transdisciplinary research to quantitative diagnostics & medicines-design. Professor Larijani’s laboratory, Cell Biophysics, is a cutting-edge cross-disciplinary platform, that has drawn upon the physical sciences to develop novel avenues for investigation of biological processes in signalling pathways.
Her Talk: A step towards precision in cancer early diagnostics and treatment.
Speaker 3
Meet Dr Gunnar Blume.
He is a senior researcher at the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Berlin, Germany, where he works on high-power semiconductor lasers and integrated laser modules. He received his Diploma in Physics Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg, Germany, in 2002, and completed his PhD at the University of Surrey in 2007. Since joining the Ferdinand-Braun-Institute, he has focused on improving semiconductor laser performance for use in spectroscopy, laser cooling and material processing. His research interests include tapered semiconductor devices and the link between device physics and practical laser systems. He is a member of the German Physical Society and the Institute of Physics.
His Talk: Short pulse semiconductor laser development at FBH for fluorescence lifetime imaging and two-photon applications.
Speaker 4
Meet Dr Sylvain Boust.
He is a research engineer at the III–V Lab, where he works on silicon nitride photonic chips and GaAs-based lasers for microwave photonics and atomic clock systems. He graduated from the Institut d’Optique Graduate School (IOGS) in 2017 and completed his PhD in 2021 through a joint programme between III–V Lab and Institut FOTON, Rennes, France. His doctoral work centred on integrated optical source based on butt-coupling between III–V gain chips and silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits. From 2021 to 2022, he worked at Thales Research and Technology on photonic integrated circuits for multiband RF transceivers. He became the programme leader for pumping laser diodes (700–1100 nm) at III–V Lab in 2025. He also coordinates the HILIGHT project and leads the design and characterisation of its laser source in collaboration with CSEM.
His Talk: Versatile laser diode for 2ph FLIM at 8 Mpx/s in HILIGHT project.
Speaker 5
Meet Dr Sara Pellegrini.
She is the Imaging Communication and Academic Collaborations Manager in the Imaging subgroup within the Analog, MEMS, and Sensors Group at STMicroelectronics since July 2023. She joined ST as a Characterization and Modelling Engineer in 2006 and progressed to Technology Manager and later to Advanced Photonics Pixel Architect. She led advanced SPAD pixel technology development, together with silicon, process, module, and system R&D teams to develop the SPAD pixel roadmap. During her PhD she developed InGaAs SPADs and worked on FLIM applications, a topic which is still part of activities she covers through academic collaborations. She holds several patents and has authored papers on SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) systems. She graduated in Electronic Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 1999 and received her PhD in Physics from Heriot-Watt University in 2006.
Her Talk: Pixels for FLIM: SPADs in monolithic and 3D stacked technology.
Speaker 6
Meet Dr Leonardo Gasparini.
He is Head of the Integrated Readout-ASICs & Image Sensors (IRIS) research unit at Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Trento, Italy. He earned his B.Sc. (2004), M.Sc. (2007), and Ph.D. (2011) in Telecommunication Engineering and ICT from the University of Trento, completing part of his doctoral research at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2017, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Bern, where he worked on entangled photon detection for super-resolution imaging. Since joining FBK in 2010, he has specialised in integrated optical sensors in deep-submicron CMOS, focusing on single-photon image sensors for biomedicine, particle physics, quantum optics, and Time-of-Flight LiDAR. He lectures in the System-on-Chip Laboratory at the University of Trento and serves on the program committee of the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). His expertise includes analogue integrated circuit design, electro-optical
His Talk: Advancing FLIM Capabilities: Twenty Years of SPAD Technology Development at FBK.
Speaker 7
Meet Dr Claudio Bruschini.
He is a Scientist, Lecturer and Lab Deputy with EPFL’s Advanced Quantum Architecture Laboratory (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne). He received the Laurea degree in physics from the University of Genova, Italy, in 1992, and the Ph.D. degree in applied sciences from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium, in 2002. His scientific interests have spanned from high energy physics and parallel computing in the early days, to challenging sensor applications in humanitarian demining, concentrating since 2003 on the development of quantum photonic devices in the form of CMOS single-photon avalanche diodes, or SPADs, for high-speed and time-resolved 2D/3D optical sensing, as well as applications thereof (biophotonics, high-energy/nuclear physics, basic sciences, quantum imaging). He is an IEEE and SPIE Senior Member and co-founder of a spin-off commercialising selected AQUA lab SPAD designs.
His Talk: One photon at a time – CMOS SPAD imagers for FLIM and beyond.
Speaker 8
Meet Dr Isabel Groß
Isabel is Application Specialist for Microscopy at PicoQuant and responsible for coordinating sales actions regarding the new Luminosa FLIM and single molecule confocal Microscope. She has an academic background in developmental and molecular neurobiology from studies at Free University Berlin and MDC Berlin. She obtained her PhD in molecular neurobiology at the University of Oldenburg working on protein – phospholipid interactions at synaptic membranes during synapse development of mice.
Her Talk: New Analysis Options Push the Limits of FLIM Imaging Modalities.
Speaker 9
Meet Professor Gail McConnell.
She a is Professor of Biophotonics at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Following a first degree in Laser Physics and Optoelectronics (1998) and PhD in Physics from the University of Strathclyde (2002), she obtained a Personal Research Fellowship from the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2003) and a Research Councils UK Academic Fellowship (2005), securing a readership in 2008 and professorship in 2012. The work in Gail’s multidisciplinary research group involves the design, development, and application of new technologies for biological and biomedical imaging, from the nanoscale to the whole organism. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, and an Honorary Fellow of the British Biophysical Society.
Her Talk: Multiphoton mesoscale imaging with the Mesolens.
Speaker 10
Meet Dr Simon Poland.
He is a senior lecturer in biophysics and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Comprehensive Cancer Centre at King’s College London. At the Advanced Functional Imaging group which he leads is focused on the development of FLIM based technologies to visualise the dynamic interaction of proteins within the cellular environment of complex 3D cell culture models, with the goal to further the understanding of cell signalling dynamics and control in cell migration and cancer progression.
His Talk: Novel imaging strategies for high-speed fluorescence lifetime imaging.
Speaker 11
Meet Professor Simon Ameer-Beg.
He is a Professor of Optical Bioimaging at King’s College London and a pioneer in fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) for studying molecular interactions in living systems. His work has driven the development and application of advanced FLIM–FRET techniques to quantify protein interactions, signalling, and mechanobiology with high spatial and temporal precision. He has played a leading role in translating optical imaging technologies from fundamental research into biomedical and clinical applications.
His Talk: It’s About Time: Using FLIM-FRET to See Molecular Interactions.
Speaker 12
Meet Professor Ruslan I. Dmitriev
He is an associate professor at Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium), head of Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials group and board member of Ghent Light Microscopy Core. He has a long-standing research interest in live multi-parameter FLIM of 3D tissue models, which include spheroids, intestinal and ‘brain’ organoids. His team pioneered imaging oxygenation of neurospheres and metabolic imaging of the small intestinal organoids. His current research interests are in multiphoton FLIM, imaging-assisted organoid & tissue engineering, as well as visualisation of physiologically relevant (bio)molecular gradients in the living 3D tissue models.
His Talk: Visualising internalisation and the biological impact of nanoplastics in live organoid models using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).
Speaker 13
Meet Dr Conor Treacy
He is a Research Fellow at Brunel University of London, working within the Horizon Europe HILIGHT project on advanced fluorescence imaging and digital histopathology. He is an interdisciplinary biophysicist specialising in multiphoton fast FLIM, FRET, and lifetime-based biosensing, with a background in protein mechanics and single-molecule techniques. Conor completed his MRes and PhD in Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King’s College London, where he investigated vinculin activation through the Rap1a–RIAM complex and helped develop multi-colour cascade FRET sensors and lifetime analysis pipelines. At Brunel he applies next-generation TCSPC instrumentation and lifetime reporters to complex cancer models, including his recent work using Acridine Orange as a lifetime-based marker of DNA damage and structural heterogeneity in 3D PDAC spheroids.
His Talk: Development of fast single-shot FLIM for digital histopathology.
Speaker 14
Meet Professor Marina K. Kuimova
She is a Professor in Chemistry at Imperial College London. After earning her Master’s degree at Moscow State University and a PhD at the University of Nottingham, she progressed through roles as EPSRC Fellow and Lecturer before her current appointment. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Royal Society of Chemistry Corday-Morgan Prize (2024). Her research focuses on developing unique probes and methodologies in fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to study dynamic biological processes in living systems, pertinent to health and disease, reflecting the focus of HILIGHT 2026: FLIM & Photonics event.
Her Talk: Measuring cellular viscosity with molecular rotors and FLIM.
Speaker 15
Meet Dr Falk Schneider.
He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warwick at the Centre for Mechanochemical Cell Biology. He trained with Christian Eggeling and Marco Fritzsche at the University of Oxford before completing postdoctoral research with Scott Fraser at the University of Southern California. His lab for Fluorescence and Membrane Dynamics (FMD), established in 2025, investigates how molecular interactions organise biological systems across scales using fluorescence fluctuation spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging.
His Talk: Seeing Metabolism Clearly: Navigating Cross-Excitation Challenges in Multiplexed NADH FLIM.
Speaker 16
Meet Dr Joëlle Goulding.
She is a Senior Research Fellow in Advanced Microscopy within the Centre for Membrane Proteins and Receptors (COMPARE) at the University of Nottingham. Dr Goulding gained a PhD in Genetics at the University of Nottingham before moving into the field of molecular pharmacology, all the while developing a love of microscopy. She specialises in fluorescence correlation spectroscopy but has recently introduced FLIM applications to the group’s toolkit. Her current research concerns applying advanced microscopy modalities in order to better understand the spatio-temporal organisation of membrane proteins and the impact this may have on their molecular pharmacology.
Her Talk: Utilising lifetime to understand membrane protein organisation.
Speaker 17
Meet Professor Amanda Wright.
She is a Professor of Optics in the Optics and Photonics Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham. Here she runs a team that develops novel optical and imaging techniques to study processes that occur in biomedical systems. She has worked on methods such as non-linear microscopy, light sheet imaging, optical trapping, micro-rheology, wavefront shaping and aberration correction. Wright has previously held a RAEng Research Fellowship and prior to Nottingham worked at the Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde, she completed her degree and PhD in Physics at the University of Manchester.
Her Talk: Optical imaging deep into biological samples.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement:
The HILIGHT 2026 mission is to bring together researchers, developers, and industry partners to share knowledge, strengthen collaboration, and support scientists at every stage of their careers. We welcome contributions from established experts, early-career researchers, and students, and abstracts will be assessed solely on scientific quality and relevance.
The organising team is fully committed to ensuring equal opportunities and fair treatment for all participants, irrespective of gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation, ethnic background, religion, culture, or disability. We are dedicated to providing a welcoming, respectful, and accessible environment for everyone attending HILIGHT 2026 and to complying with all relevant UK and EU legislation on equality, diversity, and inclusion. We warmly invite you to join us in March 2026 and contribute to an open, collaborative, and diverse FLIM and photonics community.
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