By Sergio Novi

NIRS has gained researchers’ attention in South America, especially in Brazil. The Brazilian Congress on Medical Physics dedicated one session to Photonics in Biomedicine, which presented interesting work ranging from the use of NIRS to monitor critical patients to the use of photodynamic therapy. In addition, two poster presentations related to NIRS received awards at the conference. Giovanni Scavariello’s work on the development of novel optical probes to DCS applications won the award in the “Materials and Sensors” topic. Similarly, the development of novel methods to investigate the brain during the resting state, presented by Sergio Novi, was awarded the best poster in the topic of “Biophysics”. The conference was held last September 6-9 in the city of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo.