Molecular Biosensing for Med. Diagnostics

The MBx group develops technologies based on micro- and nanoparticles for monitoring patients and for treating diseases. Towards this goal, the unique approach of MBx is to use advanced optical imaging techniques that quantify molecular processes with single molecule resolution within complex biomacromolecular environments.

Quantify molecular processes with single molecule resolution

The MBx group creates concepts in the field of molecular biosensing with diagnostic and therapeutic healthcare perspectives. Combining nanotechnology, molecular engineering and single molecule imaging technologies we aim to measure with ultimate sensitivity biomolecules implicated in a variety of diseases, such as cancer, immunology, and cardiology.

Single-molecule imaging and manipulation enables measurements with high sensitivity and gives access to molecular characteristics such as variations in space and in time, distributions of kinetic properties, molecular torsion constants, enzymatic activity, and conformational dynamics.

Furthermore, super-resolution microscopies unveil the interactions of nanostructures with living matter and guide the rational design of novel nanomedicines and diagnostic colloidal particles.

The diagnostic potential and fundamental understanding arising from these biophysical methods leads to novel solutions for patient monitoring and patient treatment. From the work in the group a startup company has been created, Helia Biomonitoring (www.heliabiomonitoring.com). Furthermore, the group has founded and organizes SensUs (www.sensus.org), the international student competition in the field of Sensors for Health, which provides students with training in multidisciplinary technological design and entrepreneurship. 

The MBx group is based in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Applied Physics, and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems.