Emmanuel Beaurepaire (DR1 CNRS, LOB/École Polytechnique) is a pioneer of multiphoton and harmonic generation deep-tissue microscopy. Research: (1) two-photon excited fluorescence (2PEF) and three-photon deep-tissue brain imaging; (2) second-harmonic generation (SHG) and third-harmonic generation (THG) label-free imaging of collagen, myosin, myelin; (3) multimodal 3-photon light-sheet microscopy with ultrafast lasers; (4) metabolic imaging using FLIM/NADH. Key LOB permanent staff (May 2024). Active collaboration with LCF/Lasers group on ultrafast laser development.

Bell's group uses DNA nanotechnology and advanced optical microscopy for single-molecule biosensing. Research directions: (1) DNA-based biosensing — DNA origami structures as programmable biosensing platforms; using structural switching of DNA nanodevices to sense specific biomolecules with single-molecule sensitivity; (2) Super-resolution microscopy with DNA — DNA-PAINT and FRET-based single-molecule localization for mapping molecular architectures in cells; (3) Solid-state nanopores — DNA-threaded through nanopores as a precision biosensor for protein identification and force measurement; (4) Multiplexed single-molecule detection — combining DNA-based sensors with optical readout for parallel biomolecule profiling. New group established at UCL, strong biosensing focus.

Poul Martin Bendix (Associate Professor, BendixLab/NBI) investigates physical properties of living cells using advanced optical techniques. Research: (1) optical tweezers for mechanosensing — GPCR mechanosensing with picoNewton force resolution, membrane curvature sensing by proteins (annexins, BAR-domain proteins); (2) thermoplasmonics — gold nanoparticle laser heating for controlled membrane microsurgery, cell fusion, and plasma membrane repair; (3) single-molecule biophysics — DNA-protein interactions using 4-trap optical tweezers (LUMICKS C-Trap) with STED imaging; (4) filopodia dynamics — twist and rotation of actin filaments; (5) Brillouin microscopy for cell mechanics; (6) COBM center management. GPCRmec consortium (Novo Nordisk). 2026 BPS Annual Meeting featured.

Benesch combines native mass spectrometry with mass photometry (developed jointly with Philipp Kukura) and other biophysical methods to determine how proteins, including molecular chaperones, assemble, interact and evolve, integrating single-molecule bioanalytical technologies for proteomics.

Berry studies rotary molecular motors, especially the bacterial flagellar motor, using novel forms of light microscopy (laser dark-field microscopy, back-focal-plane laser interferometry, optical and magnetic tweezers) to track sub-micron handles with nanometre and sub-millisecond resolution, revealing how these nanoscale engines are built, controlled and generate torque.

Betzig shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing PALM, a single-molecule localization method that broke the optical diffraction limit, and subsequently invented lattice light-sheet and adaptive-optics microscopy to image subcellular dynamics in living organisms with minimal phototoxicity. His current work, split between Berkeley and Janelia, continues to push the spatial and temporal resolution of live-cell and developmental imaging beyond conventional limits.

Boecking leads the Molecular Machines Group and is acting director of the EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science. The group reconstitutes molecular machines — clathrin coat disassembly, HIV capsid assembly and uncoating, pore-forming toxins — and watches them work one molecule at a time by TIRF, interferometric scattering (mass photometry) and fluorescence fluctuation methods, resolving short-lived intermediates that ensemble kinetics averages into invisibility. He trained originally in surface chemistry and biosensors with Gooding, which gives the group unusual competence in engineering the surfaces these assays run on. 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 — the argument for single-molecule methods over ensemble ones is identical to the argument for pushing NV sensing below its pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble regime: the interesting biology lives in heterogeneity and in transient states that averaging destroys. Strong methodological neighbour for a quantum-biosensing candidate.

Booth's Dynamic Optics and Photonics Group develops adaptive-optics methods (deformable mirrors, spatial light modulators) for aberration correction in confocal, two-photon and super-resolution (STORM/STED/SIM) microscopy, enabling higher-fidelity deep-tissue biomedical imaging, alongside applications in ultrafast laser micro-fabrication of photonic devices.

Bowen leads the CQSE 'Spins and Qubits' theme at Manchester, focusing on organometallic molecular spin qubits for quantum sensing and computing. Research directions: (1) Organometallic La(II) and other rare-earth molecular qudits — designing molecules with multiple accessible spin states (qudits) for encoding quantum information and sensing; (2) Pulsed EPR characterization — Hahn echo, ESEEM, ENDOR at X/W/Q-band to measure coherence times and hyperfine couplings; (3) Integration of molecular qubits into devices — surface deposition and nanoscale addressing; (4) Multi-spin sensing — using exchange-coupled spin pairs as differential sensors of magnetic field gradients. Closely collaborates with Tuna and Winpenny.

PREFERRED. Boyden co-invented optogenetics and expansion microscopy, the latter physically swelling fixed tissue in a hydrogel to achieve nanoscale-resolution imaging on conventional diffraction-limited microscopes; his Synthetic Neurobiology Group continues to push these techniques (expansion revealing, thousandfold expansion microscopy) alongside genetically encoded voltage/activity indicators and brain-wide circuit mapping. The group's Media Lab page notes it is currently accepting new students.