Mr Colin Hopper   MD, MBBS, BDS (Lond), FDSRCS(Eng), FRCS (Ed)

Head, Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon at University College London Hospitals Senior Research Fellow National Medical Laser Centre.

Mr Hopper has led a variety of research projects on the use of photodynamic therapy in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma. This program is currently one of the largest in the world with over 400 treatments. His work has helped establish a clear role for this treatment in a variety of neoplastic conditions in the head and neck. This work has advanced rapidly by the development of interstitial treatment of tumours using image guidance systems developed with the department of imaging and medical physics and has become a national referral service.

Mr Hopper's current surgical practice is almost exclusively the management of premalignant and malignant conditions of the head and neck. Shortly after his appointment, he set up the microvascular reconstructive service for head and neck cancer for maxillofacial surgery - a service that is now the largest oral cancer practice in London.

Professor Daniel Mark Siegel, M.D.

Daniel Mark Siegel, M.D. has been practicing Mohs surgery since completing his Fellowship in Mohs Micrographic Surgery and Dermatologic Surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas in 1986. Currently, he is Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the State University of New York at Downstate School of Medicine where he teaches residents, medical students and Fellows; directs the American College of Graduate Medical Education approved Procedural Dermatology Fellowship and the American College of Mohs Surgery training program and spends part of his week at both the Brooklyn Veterans Administration Hospital and SUNY Downstate. He is President-elect of the American Academy of Dermatology. Professor Siegel is collaborating with MDL to study the use of VivoSight to diagnose, stage, map margins and monitor treatment of skin cancers.

Dr Jeff Bamber

Ultrasound and Optical Imaging Team, Joint Department of Physics, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, Surrey, UK

Dr Jeff Bamber is a Senior Grade Scientist and Head of the Ultrasound and Optical Imaging Physics Research Team at the Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK, where he has worked as a scientist since 1979. He has also worked for the Imaging Systems Medical Products Group of the Hewlett-Packard Company in Massachusetts, whilst on sabbatical leave from the Institute (1994-1995) and, briefly, as visiting scientist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (April 1993). He holds honorary posts as Medical Physicist at the Royal Marsden and Hammersmith Hospitals, is a recognized teacher of the University of London and a member of the Academic Board of The Institute Of Cancer Research. He gained a PhD in Biophysics in 1980 and an MSc in Biophysics and Bioengineering in 1974, both from the University of London. He was President of the International Association for Breast Ultrasound from 1987 to 1997 and has been a faculty member of the International Breast Ultrasound School since 1992. He has authored or co-authored more than 105 refereed journal or full conference proceedings papers and 3 patents. Dr Bamber has been a member of the editorial boards of the journals Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, Physics in Medicine and Biology, and Skin Research and Technology. He has authored or co-authored many prize-winning papers and presentations, including a certificate of merit at RSNA (2000) for work on Freehand Elastography of the Breast, and twice winning Best Paper in the journal Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology (1991 and 1981). He has served on review bodies and acted as external advisor for research councils in the UK and the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Currently active and funded research projects that Dr Bamber is directing include imaging methods for the guidance of thermal ablation tumour therapies, combining optical and ultrasound imaging for skin lesion diagnosis, quantitative elasticity and poroelasticity imaging methods; ultrasound microbubbles and retroviral vectors for gene delivery.

Professor Hugh Barr   MB, ChB, MD (Dist), ChM, FRCS (Eng), FRCS (Ed)

Consultant Surgeon at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

Mr Barr has been Consultant Surgeon at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital 10 years and has an interest in upper gastrointestinal disease. He is also the foundation Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Bioscience, Cranfield University and the lead clinician for the National Cancer Research Network in the Three Counties Cancer Centre. His research interest is Barrett’s oesophagus and its early optical detection and treatment. He is a councillor and secretary of the British Medical Laser Association, and former Endoscopy Committee member of the British Society of Gastroenterology.

He leads a major research group on optical/spectroscopic diagnosis and also co-supervises a molecular biology group on Barrett’s oesophagus. He is a member of the South West NHS Research and Education Committee, the Development Committee and the Gloucestershire Research Consortium. Professor Barr has published over 100 papers and 25 book chapters.

Dr Nick Stone   PhD, MSc, Senior Lecturer and Consultant Scientist

The Biophotonics Research Unit at Gloucester Royal Hospital, led by Dr Nick Stone, has been pioneering the clinical use of light for both treatment and diagnosis of early cancers. Dr Stone is one of the leading UK proponents of optical diagnostics of cancer, and his group has studied many early cancers including cervical and oesophagus cancer, using OCT, Raman and FTIR.