The Leibniz Center for Photonics in Infection Research (LPI) is jointly supported by the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT), Jena University Hospital (UKJ), Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI). The center will establish a user-open translational infrastructure for photonics and optics in Jena to research and develop fundamentally new solutions for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of infections and to transfer them into routine applications. The present project forms a cornerstone of the scientific and technological content of the center.

The project focuses on the research and implementation of methodological and instrumental biophotonic solutions and platform technologies for point-of-care testing (POCT) and high-throughput applications that have already been successfully demonstrated at the proof-of-concept stage. These approaches will serve as core technologies for the diagnostic and therapeutic service pipeline of the LPI. Workflows will be developed that enable photonic interaction assays to be carried out and adapted quickly and reliably according to the specific sample and research objective, thereby facilitating the establishment of new diagnostic methods. As a result, specific diagnostics of pathogens or host responses will become possible directly from minimally invasive patient samples within only a few hours.

A central element of the LPI is the application of entirely new, globally unique photon-based methods within a new national and international user-open research infrastructure. This infrastructure will generate innovative diagnostic and therapeutic procedures that will significantly advance infection research. The screening solutions developed in this project will be offered to LPI users as part of the service and therapy pipelines, thereby facilitating the development of new therapeutic approaches for combating infectious diseases.