Galland leads LQNO at EPFL investigating light-matter interactions in nano-structures and the quantum regime. Research directions: (1) NV centers in diamond for quantum sensing — spectroscopy of NV spin states in ultra-thin diamond membranes, development of diamond nanophotonic platforms for enhanced sensing sensitivity; collaboration on quantum sensing with color centers; (2) Plasmonic nanocavities — few-nm gap junctions enhance Raman scattering by ×10^9, enabling single-molecule vibrational spectroscopy and coherent control; ultrafast and single-photon detection of coherent phonon dynamics; (3) 2D heterostructure photonics — entangled photon pair generation enhanced by TMD heterostructures; valley-polarized exciton sources; (4) Optical frequency conversion for quantum applications. SNSF-funded professor, internationally recognized for molecular optomechanics and carbon nanotube quantum optics.

Gambin was the first EMBL Australia group leader appointed to Single Molecule Science. His signature method combines cell-free protein expression with two-colour single-molecule coincidence and fluctuation spectroscopy, which sidesteps purification entirely: proteins are expressed, labelled and measured in lysate, an order of magnitude faster than conventional interaction assays. The biology is protein self-association and aggregation — alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's, cardiac and muscular disease proteins — where the size distribution of oligomers, not the mean, is the quantity of interest. 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 conceptual overlap with quantum biosensing is the insistence on distributions over averages, and his aggregation systems (paramagnetic-species-generating, redox-active amyloid) are a plausible target for T1-relaxometry-based NV detection at pT/sqrt(Hz) in the near term.

Gardner's group develops infrared and Raman microspectroscopy for biomedical diagnostics and disease sensing. Research directions: (1) FTIR synchrotron microspectroscopy — using Diamond Light Source synchrotron IR beam for high-spatial-resolution chemical mapping of biological tissues for cancer diagnosis; (2) Raman microspectroscopy — label-free chemical imaging of cells and tissue for disease classification using machine-learning chemometrics; (3) SERS probes — developing gold nanoparticle SERS labels for targeted cancer biomarker detection; (4) Breathomics — on-chip photonic sensors for exhaled breath analysis for early disease detection. The infrared and Raman methods provide label-free molecular sensing with potential for quantum-enhanced sensitivity.

Gigan leads the Optical Imaging group at LKB, pioneering wavefront shaping and computational imaging through scattering media. Research directions: (1) Wavefront shaping / transmission matrix — measuring the ~10^5 optical modes of a scattering sample's transmission matrix to focus and image through highly scattering biological tissues; roadmap on deep tissue imaging (J. Phys. Photonics 2022, lead author); (2) Multimode quantum optics through complex media — spatially multimode squeezed states transmitted through scattering media for quantum-enhanced imaging; (3) Optical computing / AI — using multiple scattering as a physical neural network for reservoir computing and nonlinear machine learning (LightOn spin-off, 2016); (4) Neurophotonics applications — focusing through the skull for deep brain imaging. Two ERC grants (2011, 2017). Optica Fellow. IUF member (2016–2021).

Glorieux leads the Quantum Fluids of Light and Nanophotonics group at LKB. Research directions: (1) Quantum fluids of light in atomic vapors — hot Rb/Cs vapor as paraxial photon fluids exhibiting superfluidity, soliton dynamics, and vortex formation; first analogue cosmological particle creation (Hawking effect) in a photon fluid (Nature Communications 2022); (2) Polariton superfluids — exciton-polariton microcavities for analogue gravity, Bogoliubov dispersion mapping, and first-order dissipative phase transitions; (3) Nanophotonics — coupling single quantum emitters (nanofiber-coupled atoms, perovskite nanocrystals) for quantum photonics and sensing; displacement sensor based on optical nanofiber; (4) Optical computing interfaces with quantum systems. Marie Curie IOF Fellow (2011), City of Paris Young Scientist Award (2015).

Uses single-molecule fluorescence microscopy in live bacteria to study stochastic gene expression, chromosome organization, and cell-to-cell variability.

Gooding is one of the world's most-cited biosensor scientists (inaugural editor-in-chief of ACS Sensors) and runs a group of over thirty researchers spanning surface chemistry, electrochemistry and nanomedicine. The sensing programme that matters here is the move from ensemble to digital, single-molecule-resolved detection: nanoparticle-tethered electrochemical sensors in which single binding events are counted rather than averaged, nanopore blockade sensors for protein biomarkers such as PSA, amplification-free nucleic-acid detection, and antifouling surface chemistries that make any of this work in real biological fluid. He has a strong commercialisation record (AgaMatrix glucose sensors). 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-molecule-counting philosophy is the biosensing analogue of moving from a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble to single-spin detection: in both cases the sensitivity gain comes from resolving individual events rather than improving an averaged signal. He is also the obvious collaborator for anyone trying to functionalise a diamond or nanoparticle quantum sensor for a real analyte.

Graham's group develops SERS-based nanoplasmonic sensing platforms for biomedical applications. Research directions: (1) SERS nanogap substrates — engineering colloidal gold and silver nanostructure clusters with reproducible, high-enhancement nanogaps for single-molecule SERS detection; (2) In vivo SERS — intravenous SERS nanotags for tumor imaging and multiplexed biomarker detection in living organisms; (3) Microfluidic SERS — integrating SERS probes in microfluidic channels for continuous monitoring of circulating biomarkers; (4) Quantitative SERS — calibration strategies for absolute analyte quantification for clinical diagnostics. Extreme sensitivity (single-molecule) relevant to quantum-enhanced optical sensing.

Gruszka's Chromatin Dynamics Lab combines real-time single-molecule imaging with biochemistry and biophysics (including in Xenopus egg-extract systems) to study how epigenetic information carried by nucleosomes is disassembled and re-established during DNA replication. The lab is actively recruiting postdoctoral fellows.

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.