The 6th Photodynamic Day, a sustainable international congress related to the International Day of Light
The 6th Photodynamic day, related to the International Day of Light, was held on May 7th at Acibadem University in Istanbul, where the 2027 IPA biennial world congress will take place.
It was chaired by Dr. Fabienne Dumoulin and the organization committee composed of Dr Atefeh Emami (secretary), Dr. Umit Isci, PhD student Dilara Sipahioglu and PhD student Zeynep Uman Ulupinar as the local committee, as well UG student and summer intern Amir Belagha-Mostefa being the sustainability assistant.
This one-day international event is organized mainly to bring top-level speakers of the field to Türkiye, where a great deal of research is focusing on different aspects and applications of photodynamics.
Four plenary speakers covered several aspects of photodynamics: Dr Nidia MALDONADO-CARMONA (Università di Firenze, Italy) presented her works on antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, Dr. Zacharias AMARA (CNAM - Paris, France) explained how precious fine chemical can be obtained thanks to environmentally friendly photodynamically prompted oxidation reactions, Dr Safacan KOLEMEN (Koç University - Istanbul, Türkiye) showcased his ROS generating molecules for therapy and afterglow imaging, and Dr Anne-Laure BULIN shared how radioluminescence can be an elegant strategy for inducing deep-tissue photodynamic therapy during radiotherapy. Along with these exciting talks, several oral and poster presentations were made, for a day full of photodynamic presentations!
The poster prize - generously sponsored by Porphychem (www.porphychem.com) - was awarded to Ms Büşra AKYOL for her poster presentation entitled “Tuning photophysical properties of BODIPY-barbituric acid dyads”.
A strong focus was made on lowering the environmental impact of the event: the distribution of plastic water bottle was banned and replaced by the distribution of individual cardboard glasses to be refilled with water from the fountains available at each corner of the university. A caoutchouc tree was also planted on the campus during the closing ceremony, with the sponsor of the journal RSC Advances (www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/rsc-advances).