KeyserLab

Who we are

We are a group of scientists at the Cavendish Lab, University of Cambridge, UK. Our research is focused on understanding transport processes through membranes for biosensing applications.

Since the pandemic we are mainly interested in understanding RNA, its structure and its relation to biology and disease. More details on our current and past research interests can be found here. Since the start, the lab aims to achieve a maximum level of control over all parameters in our experiments. Our main technique remains resistive-pulse sensing with nanopores especially in combination with DNA and now RNA nanotechnology

Our interdisciplinary team combines researchers with expertise in physics, engineering, physical chemistry, biochemistry/biology, and micro- and nanofabrication.

In case you are interested in working with us, please get in touch with Ulrich by email: ufk20 (at) cam.ac.uk.

We gratefully acknowledge funding of our work from various sources including:

News

28/09/2026 Our views on solid-state nanopore sensing for future biophysical characterization

Casey (now leading her own lab at Trinity College) and Raluca share our perspective on solid-state nanopore sensing for biophysical characterization at the single-molecule level. The paper was just published in Nature Methods last week.

On the lines of the perspective we show the utility of solid-state nanopores for nucleic-acid drug characterisation. In a collaboration with Jack Szostak and our former PhD student Filip Boskovic we have characterized PEG modification on RNA drugs with nanopore sensing. The work was recently published in JACS. Great work and a very fruitful transatlantic collaboration.

4/08/2026 Front cover on ACS nano

Simon investigated how the type of labels on our DNA carriers changes the translocation through solid-state nanopores. TWe show that he differences of the translocation between DNA with different labels are subtle. Depending on your application they might change the location of a binder along your DNA molecules. Check out the work in his ACS nano paper. Check also the great front cover that Simon created. Congratulations for a great paper and cover!

4/05/2026 Single-molecule nanoarray for short RNA

Yunxuan designed a library of DNA molecules that can be count 10s of short RNA molecules with solid-state nanopore sensing. The single-molecule resolution of the technique miniaturizes microarray sensing to true nanoarray detection with minimal sample volumes. In her paper, Yunxuan uses 27 different DNA molecules to detect up to 81 different RNA sequences. The project is part of a collaboration with Jinbo at Dalian. The technology will also enable new sensing approaches developed by Cambridge Nucleomics, the KeyserLab spin-out.