Arjen Jakobi (Associate Professor, BioNanoscience) uses cryo-electron microscopy and tomography for structural cell biology. Research: (1) cryo-ET in-cell structural biology — resolving protein complexes at near-atomic resolution inside vitrified cells; (2) autophagy and membrane remodelling — structural mechanism of autophagosome biogenesis; (3) integrin signalling complexes. Develops algorithms for sub-tomogram averaging and de-novo model building.
PREFERRED. Jasanoff's lab develops genetically encoded and nanoparticle/small-molecule MRI sensors (for calcium, dopamine, serotonin, and other neurochemical targets) that convert molecular binding events into brain-wide, noninvasive MRI contrast changes, effectively giving whole-brain 'molecular fMRI' with a growing palette of chemically distinct reporters; recent work includes liposomal nanoprobes actuated by engineered water channels for higher-sensitivity detection.
Jones's group develops optical tweezers instrumentation for biological applications. Research directions: (1) Single-cell mechanics — using optical traps to apply calibrated forces to cells and measure viscoelastic properties relevant to cancer invasion and immune response; (2) Motor protein biophysics — measuring force-velocity curves of kinesin/myosin motors at the single-molecule level; (3) Optical sorting — holographic optical tweezers for cell sorting by mechanical phenotype; (4) Instrument development — fast-switching AOD-based traps, quantitative phase imaging combined with force measurement. Sensitive to pN forces, combining biosensing with fundamental biophysics.
Chirlmin Joo (Full Professor, BioNanoscience) uses single-molecule fluorescence to study RNA dynamics and CRISPR-Cas. Research: (1) single-molecule FRET and direct RNA imaging — visualizing RNA folding, ribozyme catalysis, and mRNA translation dynamics; (2) CRISPR-Cas mechanism — real-time observation of Cas9 and Cas13 target search and cleavage; (3) nanopore-based protein sensing integration with optical tools. ERC Grant.
Jeroen Kalkman develops optical tomography and spectroscopy methods for biomedical imaging. Research: (1) Fourier-domain OCT including spectroscopic OCT for tissue structural and functional imaging; (2) novel light sources and detectors for skin cancer detection (NWO KIC project NextDeLights); (3) scattering media imaging. His work is relevant to advanced biosensing with optical coherence.
Kaminski's Laser Analytics Group develops laser-based super-resolution and fluorescence-lifetime imaging methods (STED, SIM, dSTORM, FLIM) and applies them, with long-time collaborator Gabriele Kaminski Schierle, to visualise amyloid protein aggregation in live cells and organisms as a route to understanding neurodegenerative disease; the group also directs the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Sensor Technologies.
Kaminski Schierle heads the Molecular Neuroscience Group, applying super-resolution and functional fluorescence imaging (developed with Clemens Kaminski) to gain molecular-level understanding of protein misfolding in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease models, including live-cell and whole-organism (C. elegans) imaging of amyloid aggregation.
Kapanidis' Gene Machines group develops single-molecule fluorescence methods (including ALEX/FRET and super-resolution microscopy) to observe transcription and other gene-expression machinery in real time in bacteria and viruses, and leverages this toolkit to build ultrasensitive DNA-based biosensors for pathogen and antibiotic-resistance detection.
Kassal is the leading Australian theorist of quantum effects in light harvesting. He established the distinction between coherent processes and coherent states in photosynthesis — showing that under incoherent sunlight at steady state, wavelike motion per se does not enhance efficiency, while environment-assisted transport and supertransfer genuinely can — and has since developed a classification of the mechanisms by which coherence (excitonic, vibrational, or of the light field itself) can improve energy transport. He also pioneered quantum-computer algorithms for chemistry. A distinct and directly relevant thread is the theory of spectroscopy with non-classical light: what entangled or squeezed photons can reveal about molecular coherence that classical light cannot. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — his work is the theoretical counterpart to the quantum-biology ambitions of the NV community: where NV ensembles at pT/sqrt(Hz) try to detect the magnetic signatures of biological spin chemistry, Kassal asks what quantum coherence is actually doing in those systems and whether quantum light can interrogate it.
Kasthuri pioneered automated large-volume serial electron microscopy ('connectomics') to reconstruct complete synaptic wiring diagrams of the brain, and is now exploring synchrotron X-ray and photoemission electron microscopy (with the King lab) to remove imaging-speed bottlenecks and scale reconstructions toward whole-mouse and eventually human brains, comparing development, aging, and species differences. This is squarely the kind of resolution-pushing biological imaging the filter targets, achieving nanometer-scale synaptic resolution across cubic-millimeter-to-whole-brain volumes.