July 27th, 2021 marked an important milestone for the research activities of our colleagues at the Center for Molecular Fingerprinting (CMF) in Hungary. Following a two-year preparation period, the large-scale, longitudinal populational study Health for Hungary – Hungary for Health (H4H) has been kicked off with the recruitment of the first volunteers donating their blood for advancing medicine. The H4H study is aimed to establish infrared fingerprinting for health monitoring. The doors for this nation-wide research program just opened at Székesfehérvár, near Budapest, being the initial site in a series of further ones to be joining soon.

What is this research and study good for? CMF's goal is to develop new laser-based tools for monitoring human health in a new way, not possible before. How? By analyzing blood samples in an innovative process using ultrashort laser flashes. This unique and complex technique originates from our research at attoworld and is now being applied to probing human health and further developed in collaboration with CMF.

The goal of the H4H program is to recruit individuals as volunteers from broad segments of the Hungarian population - to facilitate the development of this research and to finally develop a new possibility to track and monitor development of diseases.

The study is designed for a period of 5 years, over which 10,000+ healthy individuals at numerous sites across Hungary will repeatedly donate their blood for establishing person-specific “normal ranges” of their respective blood-based infrared molecular fingerprints. Once established, the individualized infrared fingerprints will allow early detection of deviations, such as diseases. If successful, the approach may offer a new avenue for the future of preventive medicine.