Welcome to the Gather Lab and to the Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics
Light is one of the most versatile tools known to mankind. It plays a crucial role in unravelling the secrets of biological life, and it finds widespread use in medicine for both diagnostics and therapy.
At the new Humboldt Centre for Nano- and Biophotonics, we are particularly interested in developing nano and micro scale devices that combine light and soft materials. By squeezing electromagnetic waves into microscopic volumes and letting them interact with a range of ‘interesting’ materials, such as ultra-soft jellies, glowing proteins, or organic semiconductors, we are able to perform biosensing, bioimaging and biomodulation in ways that are not available with existing technology.
Our goal is to facilitate paradigm shifts in biological understanding and to contribute new tools for medical research. Our work also provides an exciting test bed to explore fundamentals of the interaction between light and matter and thus generates new insights in chemistry and physics.
A video about what we do
by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation