Lichtgedanken 03

Rubrik 26 ensure that BLOODi is well-positioned, not only as regards its interdisciplinary nature, but also its multinationalism. Three of the doctoral candidates come from Germany and the others hail from Italy, India, Russia and Syria. The young researchers’ fresh ideas and open-min- ded outlook on research contribute to- wards the enthusiasm for innovation that characterises BLOODi. Short distances between labs The project, which was launched 18 months ago, is based very strongly on exchanges between researchers, says Figge. »We regularly get together in a large group to discuss results and new approaches. And of course, we also make contact in smaller groups, whe- never the need arises.« Communication is greatly eased by the fact that everyo- ne is close together on the Beutenberg Campus. In just a few minutes you can Drops of blood in focus At the Leibniz ScienceCampus InfectoOptics, scientists in the re- search project BLOODi are developing a dynamic haemogram. They want to use new optical technologies to recognise infectious disea- ses and their pathogens in whole blood in the fastest way possible. In order to discover how individual blood cells behave in the case of an infection and how they interact with pathogens, biologists, physicists, bioinformaticians and mathematicians need to pool their expertise and find a common language. BY JULIANE DÖLITZSCH BLOODi is as gruesome a project name as you could imagine and it conju- res up horrifying images in my mind. However, BLOODi is anything but bloodthirsty. On the contrary: the aim of the project, which brings together the University of Jena and a number of non-university research institutes, is that a single drop of blood should ideal- ly be enough to provide extensive infor- mation. The lower-case »i« in the name stands for Imaging and the complete project name is »Whole Blood Imaging«. The objective is to capture the dynamics of the blood components by means of microscopic »snapshots«, in order to be able to say as quickly as possible which pathogen has triggered an infection. In Jena, short distances and short lines of communication are important—that much has become clear to me. Easy ac- cessibility is a feature of the town, but also of the University and other research institutes. The fact that, on a small sca- le, BLOODi reflects the wider scientific landscape here is quickly apparent to me when I look at the organisational structure and then meet a number of re- searchers from the project group. They include biologists, physicists, mathema- ticians and bioinformaticians. One goal unites them all: »With the help of optical technologies, we want to develop a dy- namic haemogram and use it to enable the rapid and targeted treatment of in- fectious diseases,« explains Prof. Marc Thilo Figge, who heads the project. »The special feature is that we want to leave the blood intact, in order to observe the interactions between cells. To achieve this, we are bringing together various different scientific disciplines and ins- titutes.« This does not seem at all easy to me, and Prof. Figge concurs. »We first had to get talking to each other and develop a common basis and langua- ge,« the physicist recalls. The BLOODi team comprises 18 researchers, inclu- ding seven doctoral candidates who