Nanoscale materials increasingly find application in the diagnosis and therapy of a number of diseases. Our group is particularly interested in the question how nanocarriers can improve the accumulation and efficacy of tumor-targeted therapies. Moreover, we study how nanoparticles help to track tumor cells or immune cells such as macrophages and how they can be exploited for the in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo visualization of cell-cell interactions as well as interactions with the tumor microenvironment. We do this by using a number of imaging techniques, including optical in vivo imaging, high resolution in vivo computer tomography, optoacoustic imaging as well as 2/3-photon and light-sheet microscopy. The group has established disease-relevant organoid and mouse models, e.g. for breast, pancreatic, intestinal, and lung tumors as well as for inflammatory diseases. The optimization of nanoparticles for multimodal imaging and translation into the clinic is a major goal which is achieved through multidisciplinary collaborations. Other projects include the identification of new imaging biomarkers for characterizing tumors and degenerative muscle diseases to support personalized treatment strategies, as well as the investigation of novel imaging techniques for the detection, monitoring, and characterization of lung and cardiac fibrosis, including two-photon microscopy and X-ray based lung function techniques (XLF).