InfectoOptics - Leibniz ScienceCampus Jena

Infectious diseases are one of the most common causes of death worldwide. More than 20.000 people die of infections only in Germany every year. Moreover, pathogens, resistant against available antibiotics, make the battle against life-threatening diseases difficult. In the Jena Leibniz ScienceCampus InfectoOptics scientists from different fields combine their expertise to investigate infections and microbial pathogens.

On the one hand, physicists and engineers develop novel optical and photonic technologies for the investigation and diagnostics of infections. Methods like Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS), i.e. sorting of cells based on their specific light scattering and fluorescent characteristics, and the combination of microfluidics with spectroscopic approaches show an enormous potential for the fast analysis of cells, e.g. directly in the blood of infected individuals.

On the other hand, natural product researchers and infection biologists work on the elucidation of molecular mechanisms of infections and on the development of novel antiinfective compounds. The knowledge and methods of the different scientific fields are merged within joint research projects to push discovery processes and explore novel topics.