InfectoGnostics, a public-private initiative, will receive up to EUR 2 million each year to help it solve urgent problems in the diagnosis of infection. “This long-term funding will allow us not only to focus intensely on pure research but also to play our part in developing market-ready processes in conjunction with the campus partners, to find better solutions for diagnosing infections,” says Professor Jürgen Popp, Director of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena and a board member and spokesman for the InfectoGnostics Research Campus.
More than 30 partners from the fields of science, medicine and business in the Jena area started working as part of InfectoGnostics last year to develop and produce market-ready processes that will assist with the fast, efficient on-site detection of pathogens and microbial contamination in human and veterinary medicine and food safety. The partners include renowned companies and research institutes such as Analytik Jena AG, Alere Technologies GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institutes of Applied Optics and Precision Engineering and Ceramic Technologies and Systems. The partnership will also help make it possible to establish a European Center for the Diagnosis of Infections in Jena that will be characterized by excellence in research and education, thus uniting basic research, product application and knowledge transfer. (gro)