This course aims at addressing biology through optical methods that can be used in the study of biological processes or for diagnostic. We will mostly discuss molecular and cellular biology, with an opening towards biomedical applications.
Upon completing this course, the students should have enough basic knowledge of biology and associated optical methods to interact with specialists of this domain. They will thus better benefit from an internship or a more advanced course in this field. They will have the ability to keep track of the applications of optics in biology and medicine, and to understand the stakes of research at the interface between optics and biology. They will be able to analyse documents, more specifically to extract relevant information from scientific articles, written in english and aimed at specialists. They will also have learnt not to underestimate the difficulty of working at the interface with a domain that they do not master.

Outline
1) Basic knowledge in cellular and molecular biology: structure of the cell, replication, transcription, translation, protein structure, metabolism, signaling
2) Optical properties of biological media - Optical methods in biology and medicine (review)
3) Microscopy and Fluorescence: resolution and superresolution, contrast methods, fluorescent markers, confocal and TIRF microscopy
4) Basic methods in molecular biology: screening, Polymer Chain Reaction (PCR), electrophoresis gel, use of fluorescent proteins, cellular culture
5) Optical tweezers: experimental set-ups, force measurement and applications to the study of cells, DNA and molecular motors
6) Atomic force microscopy and applications in biology; introduction to flow cytometry; DNA sequencing
7) Biomedical applications: in depth microscopy (non linear microscopy, optical coherence tomography, diffuse optical tomography, photoacoustic tomography), optical biopsy and endoscopy, dynamic phototherapy, applications of laser in ophthalmology and dermatology.
In addition to the lectures, three articles describing experimental results at the interface between optics and biology (Biophysical Journal, Human Molecular Genetics, Nature) are discussed and analyzed in class as practical work.

Requirements : Basic knowledge in geometrical optics, microscopy, Fourier optics, interferometry and polarization are preferable. High school knowledge of biology will facilitate the access to this course but is not required.

Evaluation mechanism : 2 hour written exam, including questions about the lectures and questions about the 3 scientific articles studied in class and at home. No documents other than the texts of the 3 articles are allowed during the exam.

Last Modification : Saturday 31 May 2014