Plasmonic nanoantennas have a high potential to advance biological studies at the nanoscale. However, their use has been almost entirely focused on enhancing the fluorescence signal from individual molecules. In a recent Nano Letters paper entitled “Planar optical nano-antennas resolve cholesterol-dependent nanoscale heterogeneities in the plasma membrane of living cells”, we present the first report of optical nanoantenna arrays to study the diffusion dynamics of lipids in the membrane of living cells at the nanoscale. Our approach combines advanced nanofabrication routes with single molecule fluorescence studies using fluorescence burst analysis and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

Significance:

- We prove the existence of highly transient and fluctuating nanoscale assemblies of sterol and sphingolipids in living cell membranes. These nanodomains are cholesterol dependent and directly relate to the topic of lipid rafts, which has been heavily debated in the biological community for the last two decades.

- We establish a general methodology using nanoantennas to probe the architecture of live cell membranes with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions. This constitutes a major breakthrough in our ability to address the dynamics and interactions of molecules on the plasma membrane of living cells.

Access through Nano Letters webpage, also available on arXiv and Researchgate.

Congratulations to Dr Regmi for his brilliant defence!

We welcome Aleksandr Barulin as our new ERC team member. Experimental work in the lab has already started!

9 brand new Dell Precision 5810 units featuring a total of 288 Gb ram and >40 Tb storage.

Enough for a few brilliant single molecule traces. Come get yours. Now.

We are seeking to recruit talented, enthusiastic young scientists who are highly motivated to develop their research career in the areas of nanophotonics and/or biophotonics.Three job offers are available, see the details below:

PhD fellowship : Optical nanoantennas to enhance single molecule fluorescence detection

Postdoc Position Nano-optical trapping combined to fluorescence microscope

Postdoc Position: Protein Biochemistry / Protein Biophysics at the single molecule level

Solid track-record and high personal motivation are the sole selection criteria. Come join the group!