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The sharp rise in cancer due to an ageing society and the rapid spread of life-threatening infectious diseases and antibiotic-resistant germs are areas of unmet medical need. An effective and early diagnosis and personalized therapy of cancer and infections requires new methods for a targeted and early diagnosis of these diseases. During the last years spectroscopic methods have shown their potential to provide a clinician with clinically relevant information to meet the aforementioned challenges. Within this contribution we will highlight our recent efforts in translating spectroscopic approaches with focus on Raman spectroscopy towards routine clinical applications. We will introduce a series of innovative multi-contrast marker free spectroscopy approaches for (I) rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases for targeted antibiotic administration, which is crucial for the survival of patients; (II) precise intraoperative tumor margin control, because reliable tumor margin recognition during an intervention is the key to effective tumor treatment; and (III) early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases of the fundus of the eye. The challenges to overcome the valley of death to apply such spectroscopic approaches for clinical routine requires novel infrastructures. To reach this goal, we established the research campus InfectoGnostics to safeguard the transfer from fundamental research into diagnostic systems.
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Acknowledgements: Financial support of the EU, the ”Thüringer Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Digitale Gesellschaft”, the ”Thüringer Aufbaubank”, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany (BMBF), the German Science Foundation, the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie and the Carl-Zeiss Foundation are greatly acknowledged.
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