With the founding of LPI gGmbH on 25.04.2024, the Leibniz Centre for Photonics in Infection Research is entering the next era. The four consortium partners of the new centre - the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz IPHT), the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz HKI), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) and the University Hospital Jena (UKJ) - have thus taken the decisive step to consolidate the LPI as a globally unique translational infrastructure - as a bridge from research to application. LPI gGmbH will be established as an open-user one-stop agency. It combines all services, technologies and competences under one roof that are required to significantly accelerate the development and transfer of market-ready light-based diagnostic procedures and novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of infectious diseases.