Ladame develops biosensors and molecular diagnostic assays that detect cell-free circulating nucleic acid biomarkers (DNA/RNA) directly, without enzymatic amplification, for applications in early disease diagnosis and monitoring.
Lee leads TheLeeLab at Cambridge Chemistry, focused on developing cutting-edge biophysical single-molecule fluorescence methods to answer fundamental biological questions. Two major thrusts: (1) 3D super-resolution microscopy instrument development — the lab pioneered single-molecule light field microscopy (SMLFM) using a microlens array in the back focal plane, achieving ~10× speed improvement over double-helix PSF for volumetric imaging; also develops vortex light field microscopy (VLFM) for simultaneous 25 nm spatial / 3 nm spectral precision; (2) Biological applications — studying T-cell receptor signalling at the nanoscale (distribution of TCRs, microvilli-mediated close contacts), histone assembly during DNA replication and repair in fission yeast, and PSD-95 nanoclusters in mouse brain using 3D SMLM. A job posting (PDRA) was active in 2025 for T-cell imaging work with super-resolution and Fourier light-field microscopy.
Leifer develops closed-loop optical instrumentation that simultaneously records brain-wide calcium activity and delivers single-neuron optogenetic perturbations in freely moving C. elegans, building functional atlases of signal propagation and studying how whole-brain neural dynamics generate behavior. His group's whole-brain, cellular-resolution imaging in unrestrained animals is a benchmark advanced-microscopy approach for linking neural dynamics to behavior.
Lemke holds the chair of Synthetic Biophysics at JGU and is adjunct director at the Institute of Molecular Biology. The group's signature is combining genetic code expansion -- installing non-canonical amino acids so a dye can be clicked onto one chosen residue -- with single-molecule fluorescence: smFRET on intrinsically disordered proteins, super-resolution imaging of the nuclear pore complex and its FG-nucleoporin permeability barrier, and engineered membraneless organelles used as designer compartments in living cells. The result is single-molecule-resolution measurement of conformational dynamics and phase behaviour inside cells rather than in vitro. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), this is the strongest biosensing/advanced-microscopy host in Mainz: the labelling chemistry is precisely what a quantum-sensing postdoc would need to attach nanodiamonds or spin labels to a defined protein site, and the group already operates at the single-molecule sensitivity limit optically. Large, well-funded, internationally recruiting group.
Lichtman invented the multicolor 'Brainbow' fluorescent labeling method and pioneered large-scale, automated serial-section electron microscopy to reconstruct complete synaptic wiring diagrams (connectomes) of neural tissue, pushing spatial resolution and scale together to map circuit-level brain structure.
Liu develops quantitative susceptibility mapping and other advanced magnetic-field-sensitive MRI acquisition and reconstruction methods to noninvasively map brain iron, myelin, and microstructure with a precision that approaches magnetometric sensing of tissue magnetic properties.
Liu develops ultra-flexible, tissue-scaffold-integrated mesh bioelectronics that become seamlessly incorporated into developing neural tissue, enabling minimally invasive single-cell recording of brain activity with millisecond precision as the brain develops — a bioelectronic sensing platform explicitly aimed at eventual human/clinical translation for understanding neurodevelopmental disease.
Liu's group sits at the junction of DNA nanotechnology and nanophotonics: DNA-origami-templated plasmonic assemblies, reconfigurable artificial nanomachines whose motion is read out optically (chiral plasmonics, FRET), and, increasingly, synthetic-cell systems -- DNA-based pores and a programmable DNA-origami nanosyringe for directed membrane translocation, the latter published jointly with Nussberger's biophysics group at Stuttgart. The through-line is building nanoscale machines that both actuate and report. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), the relevance is on the biosensing axis: this is the group that can put a nanoscale probe exactly where you want it on or through a membrane, which is the delivery problem that in-cell quantum sensing keeps running into. Preferred-attribute note: nanofabrication is heavily used, but the emphasis is on single-molecule optical readout rather than device manufacture per se.
Maharbiz pioneered millimeter- and sub-millimeter-scale 'neural dust' motes that use ultrasonic power and backscatter telemetry for wireless, batteryless neural and physiological sensing, alongside other micro/nanoscale bioelectronic interfaces.
David Maresca's lab pushes the boundaries of biomedical ultrasound imaging. Research: (1) functional ultrasound imaging of the brain at cellular resolution (vascular signal decoding, brain-computer interface applications); (2) engineering gas vesicle and microbubble acoustic contrast agents as genetically-encoded biosensors; (3) ultrafast ultrasound for cardiac imaging. The lab aims to image individual cells deep inside living organs using next-generation ultrasound. NWO Vici Grant (2026); Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Dynamic Imaging grant.