Thomas Heimburg (Professor, NBI Membranes group) works on thermodynamics and biophysics of biological membranes. Research: (1) theory of nerve pulse propagation as electromechanical solitons ('soliton model'); (2) lipid membrane phase transitions — calorimetry, DSC, AFM; (3) anesthesia mechanism via membrane phase perturbation; (4) ion-channel-like events in pure lipid membranes near phase transitions. Notably co-authored 2016 Scientific Reports paper with QUANTOP (Jensen et al.) demonstrating non-invasive detection of nerve impulses using atomic magnetometry — direct overlap with quantum sensing.
Hinde is a fluorescence-fluctuation physicist embedded in cell biology: she uses pair-correlation function analysis, number-and-brightness, phasor-FLIM and FRET to read out chromatin compaction, protein-chromatin binding dynamics and nucleocytoplasmic transport in living nuclei, at spatial and temporal scales that conventional imaging averages away. The programme is a technique-pushing one — the emphasis is on extracting nanoscale structural information from photon statistics rather than on brute-force localisation — and it is now being coupled to quantum sensing through her QUBIC investigatorship, where the goal is to combine fluorescence readouts with NV-based magnetic and spin-noise contrast in the same cell. 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 — her role in QUBIC is to supply the cell-biological questions and the correlative optical readouts that make pT/sqrt(Hz)-class ensemble sensing biologically interpretable. Preferred attribute present: lifetime- and orientation-resolved methods pushing past the usual resolution limits.
Hoogenboom leads a biophysics group at UCL specializing in high-speed atomic force microscopy. Research directions: (1) High-speed AFM — imaging conformational dynamics of DNA, proteins (including membrane channels), and chromatin at ms time resolution and sub-nm spatial resolution in aqueous conditions; (2) Nuclear pore complex — mapping transport selectivity and structure of NPCs in native nuclear envelopes using AFM; (3) Antimicrobial mechanisms — imaging membrane disruption by antimicrobial peptides in real time; (4) AFM-based force spectroscopy — measuring single-molecule interaction forces in chromatin and protein assemblies. Strong relevance to biological sensing at the single-molecule level.
Jacob Hoogenboom develops integrated correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) and molecular nanophotonic imaging. Research: (1) 3-in-1 microscopy combining light, electron beam, and ion beam for precise biological sample sectioning and protein localisation; (2) integrated CLEM for mapping proteins in cellular context; (3) single-molecule nanophotonic sensing using fluorescence. Relevant to advanced single-molecule biosensing approaches.
Hutchison works on molecular polaritonics: what happens to chemistry when molecular electronic or vibrational transitions are strongly coupled to a confined optical mode in a Fabry-Perot or plasmonic nanocavity. He was among the first to show that vibrational strong coupling modifies ground-state chemical reactivity, and the group continues to probe polariton-modified energy transfer, photochemistry and transport, alongside single-molecule spectroscopy and 2D-material photonics. 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 connection to quantum sensing is the cavity: the same Purcell and collective-coupling physics that concentrates optical density of states around a molecule is what is used to improve photon collection and readout fidelity in NV ensembles operating at pT/sqrt(Hz). This is fundamental light-matter physics with a clear nonclassical-state angle.
Timon Idema (Associate Professor, BioNanoscience) develops theoretical models of cell biophysics. Research: (1) membrane shape theory — analytical and computational models of membrane curvature, budding, and fission driven by proteins; (2) cytoskeletal self-organisation — theoretical description of how microtubules and actin form functional structures during cell division; (3) synthetic cell theory — physical constraints and design principles for minimal cells. Collaborates closely with Dogterom and Koenderink labs on comparing theory with single-molecule experiments.
Ivanov works on nanotechnology-enabled biosensors and biophysical measurement platforms, including nanopore and microfluidic devices for single-molecule and single-particle biosensing.
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.