Ultrafast lasers provide powerful microfabrication capabilities – the full power and flexibility of which are only now becoming recognised. They can be used to directly write 3D structural modifications into glass, which manifest themselves through modifications to the chemical etch rate and refractive index. The former of these can be used to fabricate freeform miniature micro-optics with precision passive alignment structures for optical fibres [1]. The latter can be used to write 3D optical waveguide structures for future imaging applications [2]. Ultrafast laser pulses can also be used to precisely modify the end facet of an optical fibre, such that sensing fluorophores can be attached to different cores of a multicore optical fibre [3]. I will discuss how unique capabilities such as these open up new possibilities for fibre-optic technologies for in-vivo sensing and imaging.