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:

Logo ERC Logo EPSRC Logo BBSRC
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News

5/3/2025 Review on protein oligomer analysis.

Sarah and her collaborator Robert from the Vendruscolo lab have written a great review on the state of the art in oligomer sensing. After an extensive literature review, Robert and Sarah show how nanopores and DNA nanotechnology may provide a complementary approach to the established techniques. Check out the article in Nature Review Chemistry.

5/6/2024 Forces on RNA:DNA hybrids.

Filip, Gerardo, and Ran measured the translocation velocity of designed RNA:DNA, and DNA:DNA hybrids in the same nanopore. In a collbaoration with the Aksimentiev lab at Urbana-Champaign, our data and their models show that duplexes of RNA and DNA move at the same velocity through the nanopores. A remarkable finding as the molecules have different structire where RNA:DNA is closer to A-form helix than the usual B-form.

18/5/2024 RNA nanostructure folding (almost) at room temperature .

Herchel Smith fellow Casey developed a new approach to get RNA:DNA nanostructures into shape for nanopore sensing. In the work that just appeared in JACS, she and Max show that RNA can be kept from self-cleaving by folding at room temperature. Top tip: For high GC content, consider a few minutes long temperature spike.