Oxygen and Life are often considered as synonyms. Oxygen is necessary for our cells to produce the energy to survive. Many organs of our body to function require energy and hence need oxygen. Most important our brain, the neurons in our cerebral cortex, our grey matter, require energy and hence oxygen, to produce electrical activity and allow us to move our muscles and produce thoughts. Oxygen carried by haemoglobin needs to reach the specific functioning areas in our brain to enable energy production via our mitochondrial and to drive neuron electrical generation. Tracking oxygen distribution in the brain allow us to monitor and image brain function, enabling us to understand the mechanisms of cognitive processes. Disturbances in delivering oxygen in our brain due to trauma such as brain injury or cardiovascular disorders such as stroke and cardiac arrest can have severe effects in our brain function. In addition, sustained oxygen availability to our brain is important for brain growth and normal healthy neurodevelopment; oxygen feeds newborn brains towards healthy function and brain maturity.
Oxygen also feeds cancer cells and oxygen availability, or unavailability is linked to tumour growth. Oxygen has many implications not only in the development of tumours but also in the treatment of tumours. Monitoring and imaging oxygen and metabolic distributions in tumours can allow accurate predictions of tumour growth, tracking of tumour borders and understanding the effect of tumour treatments.
The International Society on Oxygen Transport to Tissue (ISOTT) conference brings together scientists, engineers, physicists, physiologists, clinicians, neuroscientists and psychologists to discuss the most recent advances in oxygen-related research. From new developments in instruments and methodologies to measure oxygen and metabolism in any part of the body; to novel computational techniques to model and simulate oxygen function in the body; to clinical and neuroscience applications of monitoring and imaging oxygen distribution. We welcome different academic disciplines and clinical specialties to come together and address all different aspects of oxygen-related biology, physiology and clinical medicine. This is the first time ISOTT has been hosted in Greece, it is a great honour for us to host ISOTT 2025 in Thessaloniki.