ECE Seminar – “Nanoprobes for Single-Cell Surgery”

Presented by: Paolo Actis, Associate Professor of Bionanotechnology at the University of Leeds

Description: “Physiological and pathological processes within the human body are controlled by complex cell-cell interactions within the context of a dynamic microenvironment. The ability to dynamically measure phenotypes (i.e. gene expression, protein activities, ion fluctuations, signalling) at the single cell level is key to understanding cellular behaviour in a complex environment. I will be presenting the development of nanoscale tools able to dissect the dynamic contributions of single cells to disease processes.
I will present the application of nanopipettes for the structural characterization of biomolecules under physiological relevant conditions. I will then discuss the integration of nanopipettes with scanning probe microscopies to enable the quantitative delivery of DNA, globular proteins, and protein fibrils into cells with single molecule resolution and that delivery results in a phenotypic change in the cell that depends on the identity of the molecules introduced. Using experiments and computational modelling, we also show that macromolecular crowding in the cell increases the signal-to-noise ratio for the detection of translocation events, thus the cell itself enhances the detection of the molecules delivered.”

References

1 Chau et al, Angewandte Chemie, 2026
2 Chau et al, ACS Nano, 2025
3 Chau et al, Nature Communications, 2024
4 Marcuccio et al, Science Advances, 2024

Bio: Paolo is an Associate Professor in Bionanotechnology at the University of Leeds and his research involves the development of nanoprobes for single-cell analysis and manipulation with single molecule resolution. After graduating in 2008 with a PhD from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (FR), Paolo spent 4 years in California working on his tan at NASA Ames (US) and UC Santa Cruz (US) before crossing the pond again to lose his tan at Imperial College London (UK). He then spent two years at Bio Nano Consulting as a Consultant & Project Manager before joining the University of Leeds in 2014 first as Lecturer and since 2020 as Associate Professor.

Hosted by: Professor Marco Rolandi, Jack Baskin Endowed Chair in Engineering & Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering

When: Tuesday, July 28, 2026 @ 11:30AM PST

Location: Jack Baskin Engineering, Room 330