Dai's lab pioneered second-near-infrared-window (NIR-II/SWIR) fluorescent nanomaterial probes -- including carbon nanotube and rare-earth-based emitters -- that dramatically reduce tissue scattering and autofluorescence, enabling deep-tissue in vivo optical imaging at spatial resolution unattainable with visible-light fluorophores.
Goldys was Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics and now leads a nanoscale biophotonics group in Biomedical Engineering. The programme is about extracting diagnostic information from very weak optical signals inside cells and tissue: luminescent and upconverting nanoparticle probes with long lifetimes that allow time-gated, background-free detection; hyperspectral unmixing of native cellular autofluorescence (NADH, FAD, porphyrins) as a completely label-free readout of cell state, which she has pushed toward clinical use in reproductive medicine and cancer; and nanoparticle-mediated therapy. 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 — time-gated luminescence and NV relaxometry are two solutions to the same problem — how to read a faint, specific signal out of an autofluorescent, optically hostile biological background — and her clinical translation experience is exactly the missing capability in most quantum-biosensing groups. Preferred attribute present: advanced/label-based imaging with a genuine human-application pathway.
Mulvaney directs the ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science and runs Melbourne's nanoscience laboratory. The group's distinctive capability is single-particle and single-emitter optical spectroscopy: photon-antibunching and blinking statistics from individual quantum dots and perovskite nanocrystals, photothermal and dark-field spectroscopy of individual metal nanoparticles, and the electrochemical control of single-nanocrystal charge state. Applications run from LEDs and solar cells to quantum-dot probes for single-particle tracking in cells. 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 single-emitter photon-statistics measurements share the shot-noise-limited photon-counting methodology of NV-ensemble ODMR readout, and the group's nanocrystal probes are direct competitors/complements to nanodiamond in cellular sensing. Large, well-resourced group.
Pioneer of single-molecule/single-nanoparticle surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and quantum-dot bioconjugate imaging; develops nanoparticle probes for ultrasensitive molecular detection and in vivo tumor imaging.
Develops compact, bright semiconductor quantum dot probes for single-molecule and single-particle live-cell imaging, and photonic-crystal-enhanced single-quantum-dot digital biosensing (with B. Cunningham).
Zheltikov integrates NV-diamond magnetometry into photonic-crystal fibers for high-resolution, fiber-delivered magnetic-field imaging and endoscopy, alongside ultrafast biophotonics (multiphoton deep-tissue imaging, SWIR probes) and quantum-light molecular spectroscopy. In the broader landscape of NV-centre ensemble quantum sensing (DEER, nano-NMR, T1 relaxometry) operating near pT/sqrt(Hz) sensitivity, this work extends NV ensemble sensing into fiberized, in-vivo-compatible geometries.