Francesco Saverio Pavone
Laboratory for advanced biological sensing, University of Florence
Francesco Saverio Pavone was born in Bari the 23th March 1962. In 1989 he obtained his Laurea degree in Physics at the University of Florence. In 1990 he became Research Officer at the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (University of Florence). In 1993 he obtained a Master in Optics at the National Institute for Optics (Florence, Italy). In 1997 he spent one year and half as "Maitre de Conférences Associe au College de France", Paris, with experimental work at the "Ecole Normale Superieure" (ENS) of Paris with Prof. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1997 Nobel prize in Physics). In 1998 he became associate Professor of physics at the department of physics of the University of Perugia, Italy and Scientific director of the section of Atomic and Molecular Physics at the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), Florence, Italy. In 2001 he moved as associate professor to the University of Florence (Dept. of Physics) and became scientific responsible of the Biophotonics Area at LENS (Florence, Italy). In 2005 he became Full Professor of Physics of the Matter at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence. He was Director of LENS from Dec 2013 until Dec 2019. He is currently area manager at LENS and president of the Museum Science Galileo in Florence.
As scientific experience, from 1990 to 1995 he worked in the field of Atomic and molecular spectroscopy. From 1995 to 1999 he worked in the field of Atomic physics, and since 1999 in Biophysics. Currently he is directing a research group of more than 50 people working in the field of biophotonics, in particular on microscopy, biomedical imaging, image analysis, data management and machine learning.
Pavone is author of more than 250 international papers and editor of international books. He has more than 150 invited talk and he is editor of several international journals. He’s unit coordinator of International, European and national projects and obtained an Advanced Grant of European Research Council (ERC BrainBIT, 2016-2021) , an associated ERC Proof-Of-Concept (POC) and a NIH grant in the framework of the Brain Initiative (NIH BICCN U01MH117023, 2018-2023). He is the Italian node leader of the infrastructure EBRAIN and the italian delegate in the Board of Directors of the infrastructure EurobioImaging. He has organized several international congresses. He is in the evaluation panel of the European Research Council (PE3) and the DFG (Germany), fellow of SPIE, AIMBE and OSA. He has an h-index equal to 54 (Google scholar). Finally, Pavone is founder of companies Light4tech (ww.l4t.it) in 2005 and Emoled (www.emoled.com) in 2016, and author of some patents
Illuminating Brain Connectivity with AI and Advanced Optical Imaging
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming biophotonics by enhancing the analysis of complex biological structures and functions. Here, we present two experiments combining advanced imaging with machine learning for data analysis and brain connectivity reconstruction.
The first uses light-sheet microscopy to obtain high-resolution 3D maps of human brain structure. Machine learning algorithms support automated segmentation, identification of neural networks, and reconstruction of connections between cortical areas, improving accuracy and efficiency in neuroimaging and neuroplasticity studies.
The second focuses on zebrafish brain connectivity. Two-photon and light-sheet microscopy are used to monitor real-time brain activity, while AI processes large imaging datasets to reconstruct neural networks and analyze dynamic connectivity. Deep learning and predictive models provide insights into brain circuits and functional responses, with relevance for neuroplasticity and neurodegenerative disease models.
Together, these studies show how AI-driven biophotonics can advance brain mapping, early disease detection, and personalized therapeutic approaches.
