The Jena traditions of contemporary analysis methods und bioanalytics trace far back. As early as 1872 scientist Ernst Abbe developed the theory of microscopical imaging, with his findings being applied to microscope assembling. In order to reach the calculated parameters of microscope lenses, Abbe developed suitable measuring methods for determining the glass properties. Thereby, he layed the foundations of analytical measuring technology.

Nowadays, Jena is home to companies and research institutions with various competencies in analytics and bioanalytics. The local enterprises are internationally renowned within the industry, for example Analytik Jena, Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, AVISO, CLONDIAG and SIRS-Lab.

Expert knowledge coupled with management experience turn Jena into an attractive place for start-up ideas. For example, the technology and business incubator BioCentiv was opened here in 2000, supporting business founders in the bio-instruments industry.

Competent contacts for application-oriented technologies in Jena are also the research institutions on the Beutenberg Campus. These include – in addition to BioCentiv – the Institute of Virology and Antiviral Therapy and the Centre of Molecular Biomedicine of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Leibniz Institute for Age Research – Fritz Lipmann Institute, the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute, the Max Planck Institute for Biogeo-chemistry and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, the Institute of Photonic Technology and the Technology and Innovation Park Jena.

Networks between the single institutions function well in Jena, leading to short ways and straightforward cooperations when it comes to interdisciplinary projects. The Friedrich Schiller University with its institutes, the University Medical Centre and the University of Applied Sciences Jena belong to these networks as well. The future employees of Jena’s analytics companies learn their skills here, for instance in the Department of Medical Engineering and Biotechnology of the University of Applied Sciences Jena and the Institutes of Microbiology and as well Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The latter also hosts the Department of Bioinformatics; additionally, one of the University’s research focal points is the topic “Dynamics of complex biological systems.”

The analytics and bioanalytics companies of Jena have written many stories of success with their developments. Those result from implementing innovative ideas into market-ready products of the highest quality. Business activities include:

• Development, production and distribution of individual and system solutions concerning analytics and the life sciences industry (for example atomic and molecular spectroscopy, PCR, mobile germ detection)

• Development, production and distribution of laser scanning microscopes and light microscopes for a wide range of applications in biology, medicine and life sciences, for instance as a basis for molecular, cellular and microbiological research and for material analysis

• High-tech-products for the automatic selection and harvest of single cells and cell colonies and for stem cell research

• Solutions for the field of diagnostics combining competences of medical engineering and laboratory analytics