Eva Aw

Eva Aw is a PhD student at University College London (UCL), UK working on the synthesis and characterisation of low-dimensional materials using a range of techniques. The emergence of new 2D materials such as phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs), discovered in her research group at UCL, is essential in laying the groundwork in harnessing their potential for next-generation nanoelectronics and energy solutions. These nanoribbons, known for their remarkable flexibility, high surface area and edge effects due to electron confinement, can lead to tunable semiconducting properties and recently discovered to exhibit magnetic edge states.

Eva is currently investigating the local electrical conductivity of these PNRs using conductive high-speed AFM, in collaboration with Bristol Nanodynamics Ltd. This HSAFM is an extremely powerful tool which not only enables rapid data acquisition of PNR on a large area for high accuracy sample statistics, but for the first time ever, they have experimentally observed simultaneous mapping of both topography and conductivity of these nanoribbons. 

Eva Aw

Recent AFM-related papers:

• Shutt R. R. C., Aw E. S. Y., Liu Q., Berry-Gair J., Lancaster H. J., Said S., Miller T. S., Corà F., Howard C. H. & Clancy A. J. (2024) Investigating the mechanism of phosphorene nanoribbon synthesis by discharging black phosphorus intercalation compounds Nanoscale 16, 1742-1750

• Zhang F. F., Aw E., Eaton A. G., Shutt R. R. C., Lim J., Kim J. H., Macdonald T. J., Reyes C. D. L., Ashoka A., Pandya R., Payton O. D., Picco L., Knapp C. E., Corà F., Rao A., Howard C. A., & Clancy A. J. (2023) Production of Magnetic Arsenic–Phosphorus Alloy Nanoribbons with Small Band Gaps and High Hole Conductivities J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 33, 18286–18295

Biography: Eva was born in London but grew up in Malaysia. She graduated with a degree in MSci Physics from University College London (UCL), UK. Her masters project focused on the deposition of high quality epitaxial thin films of a ferroelectric material, HZO. The crystal structures were studied primarily using the X-ray diffraction technique. She also used AFM to test their growth quality and surface roughness. Prior to that, she undertook a summer research project at Seoul National University working on 2DEG in transparent oxide semiconductor. She is currently undertaking a PhD with the CDT-ACM in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL.

Twitter: @2DMaterialGirl

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-aw-286800106 

Webpage: https://www.cdt-acm.org/people/eva-aw/ 

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Dr Mar Eroles

Mar Eroles is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Felix Rico’s laboratory (DyNaMo) at Aix-Marseille Université and INSERM in France. Her area of research covers the study of mechanical biomarkers in the inflammatory response through the development of instrumentation, sample preparation, data acquisition and analysis tools for robust and fast AFM viscoelastic measurements of cells and tissues. Mar has been particularly drawn to this area of research due to its potential for providing faster, label-free, and minimally invasive methods for diagnosing and monitoring diseases.

Throughout Mar’s doctoral work, two significant mechanical hallmarks related to the inflammatory response were characterized by AFM. Viscoelastic changes during monocyte differentiation into macrophages across various activation states were investigated, revealing insights into how macrophage stiffening may enhance mechanosensitivity activity during inflammation. Additionally, the study elucidated the influence of cytoskeletal modulation and adhesive processes on mechanical alterations at the nanoscale, employing a coupled system involving atomic force microscopy and interference contrast microscopy. 

Mar's contributions extended to identifying mechanical biomarkers in monocytes during hyperinflammatory syndromes, such as the 'cytokine storm,' in an in vitro model. Although still in preparation, this research holds promise for future clinical applications. 

Collaborative endeavours played a crucial role in Mar's research journey which are mentioned in her biography. Furthermore, involvement in software development for analyzing force-deformation curves and microrheology in atomic force microscopy measurements showcased Mar's dedication to advancing measurement techniques in the field. Mar also played a part in a collective effort to standardize atomic force measurements in cells, thereby promoting greater consistency and reliability in mechanical assessments across the AFM research community. 

Her research continues using HS-AFM to study cell membrane dynamics at unprecedented speeds. 

Mar Navarro

Recent AFM-related publications:

• Eroles M. & Rico F. (2023) Advances in mechanical biomarkers Journal of Molecular Recognition 36 (8)

• Eroles M., Lopez-Alonso J., Ortega A., Boudier T., Gharzeddine K., Lafont F., Franz C. M., Millet A., Valotteau C. & Rico F. (2023) Coupled mechanical mapping and interference contrast microscopy reveal viscoelastic and adhesion hallmarks of monocyte differentiation into macrophages Nanoscale 29

• Gerum R., Mirzahossein E., Eroles M., Elsterer J., Mainka A., Bauer A., Sonntag S., Winterl A., Bartl J., Fischer L., Abuhattum S., Goswami R., Girardo S., Guck J., Schrüfer S., Ströhlein N., Nosratlo M., Herrmann H., Schultheis D., Rico F., Müller S. J., Gekle S. & Fabry B. (2022) Viscoelastic properties of suspended cells measured with shear flow deformation cytometry eLife 11:e78823

• Pérez-Domínguez S., Kulkarni S. G., Pabijan J., Gnanachandran K., Holuigue H., Eroles M., Lorenc E., Berardi M., Antonovaite N., Marini M. L. Alonso J. L., Redonto-Morata L., Dupres V., Janel S., Acharya S., Otero J., Navajas D., Bielawski K., Schillers H., Lafont F., Rico F., Podestà A., Radmacher M. & Lekka M. (2023) Reliable, standardized measurements for cell mechanical properties Nanoscale 40

• López-Alonso J., Eroles M., Janel S., Berardi M., Pellequer J-L., Dupres V., Lafont F. & Rico F. (2023)PyFMLab: Open-source software for atomic force microscopy microrheology data analysis Open Research Europe - Software Tool article 3:187 (new open access software for AFM-microrheology data analysis)

Biography: Mar earned her PhD in immunology applied to physics from Aix-Marseille Université as part of the Phys2BioMed MSCA-ITN network. With a unique blend of expertise in both immunology and cell mechanics, she focused her research on discovering mechanical biomarkers for novel diagnostics and high-throughput approaches in biophysics, specifically related to the inflammatory response of leukocytes. During her doctoral studies, she developed a deep expertise in the use of atomic force microscopy for the viscoelastic characterization of cells. This knowledge was enhanced during her stay at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany with Prof. Ben Fabry laboratory, where she combined it with the development of shear flow deformation cytometry (SF-DC) microfluidics technique to obtain high throughput viscoelastic measurements. Mar also gained experience in advanced imaging methods during her JSPS fellowship in Kanazawa University, Japan, working in NanoLSI with Dr. Clemens Franz, where she received training in the use of high-speed atomic force microscopy and holographic tomography imaging for cell membrane reconstruction.

Prior to her time as a researcher, Mar worked as an investment analyst for VC and private investors in Spain and Italy, screening and connecting investors. She has remained an active member of the European start-up community, serving as both a jury member and mentor in several acceleration programs, including EIT Health, the Founder Institute, and Mass Challenge. Mar has also served as an expert in the biomedical field for the European Commission in the European Innovation Council for several years while leading Imagine IF! Global Accelerator in Barcelona. Additionally, she founded her own consulting firm, Mandarina Capital, in 2018 to help biomedical start-ups navigate financing rounds. Mar continues to make significant contributions to the field of mechanical biomarkers as a postdoctoral researcher in Aix-Marseille Université, applying HS-AFM to pull membrane tethers on leukocytes at unprecedented speed.

Twitter: @mareroles

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mareroles/

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Dr Marina Inés Giannotti

Marina Inés Giannotti is Senior Researcher at the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) in the subject area of Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), working at the Nanoprobes & Nanoswitches research group of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Spain.

She has always been motivated to understand the structure-nanomechanics-function relationship in biosystems, concentrating on different phenomena and events related to non-covalent associations/interactions. In this sense, AFM is a key technique to study supramolecular interactions and the role of different factors. The two main focuses of her research are lipid membranes, and macromolecules’ structure and communication between proteins, to address fundamental questions of relevance in biology, both in physiological and pathological circumstances.

Working with model membranes and using mainly AFM for imaging and force spectroscopy -measuring indentation or stretching membrane tubes- to study the structure and packing of the different coexisting phases, her research has contributed to the understanding of the structural and mechanical implications of the different membrane constituents, including cholesterol and glycolipids, as well as actors external to the membrane, such as extracellular glycans or proteins. Currently, her efforts are focused on investigating lipid imbalances associated with different pathologies.

In addition, Marina uses single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS) to understand the behaviour of different macromolecules at the individual level in liquid environment. She investigated the protein-protein interaction in relation to its electron transport (ET) function in the photosynthetic and the mitochondrial respiratory chains, in collaboration with Prof. P. Gorostiza and Dr. A. Lagunas, experts in single protein nanoconductance. Besides obtaining structural parameters of the individual proteins, AFM-SMFS contributes to define the molecular mechanisms that regulate ET within and between proteins.

Marina I. Giannotti

Recent AFM papers:

• Gomila A. M. J., Pérez-Mejías G., Nin-Hill A., Guerra-Castellano A., Casas-Ferrer L., Ortiz-Tescari S., Díaz-Quintana A., Samitier J., Rovira C., De la Rosa M. A., Díaz-Moreno I., Gorostiza P., Giannotti M. I., Lagunas A. (2022). Phosphorylation disrupts long-distance electron transport in cytochrome Nature Communications 13, 7100

• Zamora R. A., López-Ortiz M., Sales-Mateo M., Hu C., Croce R., Maniyara R. A., Pruneri V., Giannotti M. I., Gorostiza P. (2022). Light- and Redox-Dependent Force Spectroscopy Reveals that the Interaction between Plastocyanin and Plant Photosystem I Is Favored when One Partner Is Ready for Electron Transfer ACS Nano 16, 15155-15164 

Biography: Marina is a Senior Researcher at the CIBER-BBN and Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona, Spain. She is a chemist, and she completed her PhD in Materials Science at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (Argentina) in 2004. Next, she joined the lab of Prof. Vancso in the University of Twente (The Netherlands) thanks to a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship, where she specialized in single molecule force spectroscopy, among other AFM-based approaches. Since 2008 Marina works in Barcelona, on biophysics of biosystems like membranes and proteins, focused on the nanomechanics and interactions in relation with function, where AFM and Force Spectroscopy are key fundamental tools.

Twitter: @GiannottiMarina

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marina-giannotti-13978a8/

Website: https://ibecbarcelona.eu/member/135/Marina+In%C3%A9s+Giannotti/

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Dr Christa Phillipa Brown

Christa Brown is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Thomas Perkins at JILA, University of Colorado Boulder, USA. She is using AFM-based single-molecule force spectroscopy to investigate the energetics of protein folding and unfolding. Utilising a site-specific, adhesin-ligand based attachment scheme, the AFM cantilever binds to the target protein, allowing the protein molecule to be stretched and thereby unfolded and refolded. Focused-ion-beam (FIB) modified cantilevers provide enhanced force stability and precision coupled with improved time resolution, enabling a significantly more detailed observations than achievable with standard, unmodified cantilevers.  

Christa Brown

Biography: Christa did her PhD in Lorna Dougan's lab at the Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Leeds, UK where her research focussed on investigating folded protein hydrogels as a smart biomaterial, by embedding ultrasound responsive microbubbles. She then moved the lab of Thomas Perkins at JILA, University of Colorado Boulder, USA as a postdoctoral researcher.

Twitter: @Christa_pb

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christa-brown-380ba31a9/

Webpage: https://jila.colorado.edu/perkins/people/lab-members

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Dr Saima Aktar Sumaiya

Saima Aktar Sumaiya is a postdoctoral research scientist at Sahin Lab at Columbia University, USA. Saima’s research interests include high resolution surface imaging, nanomechanics and nanotribology. Her current research focuses on studying mechanics of hygroscopic biological materials using atomic force microscopy-based nanomechanical approaches.

Hygroscopic biological materials, ranging from wood to bacterial spores, constitute a substantial portion of the biological realm. Traditionally, these materials have not been considered part of the same class, and the mechanical behavior of some is explained within the context of "poroelasticity". Research conducted at the Sahin lab has revealed that poroelastic theory falls short in explaining all the traits of these materials. Instead, hydration force, ariseing from the confinement of water within nanometer-scale gaps, emerges as a dominant factor in dictating their mechanical behavior. Saima’s research at Sahin Lab is part of a broader initiative to identify commonalities in the mechanical behavior of hygroscopic biological materials, despite their significant differences in chemical composition.  She studies the equilibrium and non-equilibrium mechanical characteristics of these materials through frequency dependent AFM measurements. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical predictions based on hydration force and reveal a jamming-driven increase in elastic modulus.  These findings potentially categorize several hygroscopic biological materials collectively as "hydration solids," a term coined due to the influence of hydration force in their behaviour.

Recent papers:

• Sumaiya S. A.  Baykara M. Z. (2023) Atomic-scale imaging and spectroscopy via scanning probe microscopy: An overview J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 41, 060802

• Sumaiya S. A., Demiroglu I., Caylan O. R., Buke G. C., Sevik C. & Baykara M. Z. (2023) Atomically Resolved Defects on Thin Molybdenum Carbide (α-Mo2C) Crystals Langmuir 39, 31, 10788–10794

• Sumaiya S. A.  Baykara M. Z. (2022) True Atomic-Resolution Surface Imaging and Manipulation under Ambient Conditions via Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy ACS Nano 16, 12, 20086–20093
  
  

Biography: Saima carried out her Ph.D. at University of California, Merced, USA as well as her Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Mehmet Baykara. During her Ph.D., she specialized in high-resolution surface imaging through atomic force microscopy. Her noteworthy achievements include demonstrating the capability to achieve atomic-resolution surface imaging under ambient conditions, a feat that led to her receiving the Graduate Research Award from the American Vacuum Society in 2022. Following the completion of her Ph.D., she embarked on a postdoctoral research scientist position at Columbia University, working with Prof. Ozgur Sahin. Her undergraduate degree was from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Twitter: @SaimaASumaiya

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saima-aktar-sumaiya-726292b6/

Website: https://www.extremebio.org/saima-aktar-sumaiya/

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Dr Melanie Köhler

Melanie Köhler is the head of the Junior Research Group Mechanoreceptors at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology at the Technical University of Munich (LSB). Her research group aims to decipher the molecular basis underlying oral texture perception. They study and characterize the oral receptor molecules involved in mouthfeel (e.g. mechanoreceptors), their interplay with taste receptors/ chemesthesis and certain food constituents, known to enhance mouthfeel of food products. High-throughput atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used as a central technique in combination with new biophysical methodologies, other advanced microscopy techniques, mechano- and cell biology, food chemistry and biology, bioinformatics, and human sensory analysis to discover how texture makes flavour.

The combined use of these techniques will offer innovative routes to study, evaluate and standardize mouthfeel in flavour perception, and to design related novel food structures to solve problems in health, dietary choice, and nutrition.

Melanie Köhler

Recent AFM-related papers:

• Sutherland D. M., Strebl M., Koehlerd M., Welsh O. L., Yue X., Hue L., dos Santos Natividade R., Knowltona J. J., Taylora G. M., Morenoe R. A., Wörz P., Lonergan Z. R., Aravamudhana P., Guzman- Cardozo C., Koura S., Pandey U. B., Alsteens D., Wang Z., Prasade B. V. V., Stehle T. & Dermody T. S. (2023) NgR1 binding to reovirus reveals an unusual bivalent interaction and a new viral attachment protein PNAS 120 (24)

• Dos Santos Natividade R., Koehler M., Gomes P. S. F. C. & Alsteens D. (2023) Deciphering molecular mechanisms stabilizing the reovirus-binding complex PNAS 120 (21)

• Dumitru A. C. & Koehler M. (2023) Recent advances in the application of atomic force microscopy to structural biology Journal of Structural Biology 215 (2) 107963

• Shang P., Simpson J. D., Taylor G. M., Sutherland D. M., Welsh O. L., Aravamudhan P., Dos Santos Natividade R., Schwab K., Michel J. J., Poholek A. C., Wu Y., Rajasundaram D., Koehler M., Alsteens D. & Dermody T. S. (2023) Paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B is an entry receptor for mammalian orthoreovirus Nature Communications 14:2615

• Simpson J. D., Ray A., Marcon C., Dos Santos Natividade R., Dorrazehi G. D., Durlet K., Koehler M. & Alsteens D. (2023) Single-Molecule Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Binding to C-Type Lectin Receptors Nano Letters 23 (4) 1496–1504

Biography: Melanie grew up in Rosenheim, Germany and received her Master of Science at the University of Applied Sciences in Linz, Austria in the field of Medical Engineering. She obtained her PhD with a thesis on "Single molecular binding studies of purine nucleotides to mitochondrial uncoupling proteins explored by recognition imaging and force spectroscopy" at the Johannes Kepler University, Institute of Biophysics, Linz, Austria. After that, at the end of 2016, she moved to the UCLouvain in Belgium, where she worked as postdoctoral researcher and explored the molecular mechanisms behind virus binding to cell surface receptors. Since June 2022 she heads the Junior Research Group Mechanoreceptors at the Leibniz-Institute of Food Systems Biology at the TU Munich, Germany.

Twitter: @melli_koehler

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-köhler-664752266

Webpage: https://www.leibniz-lsb.de/en/institute/staff/profile-dr-melanie-koehler/

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Dr Carmen Munuera

Carmen Munuera is a Tenured Scientist at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid, ICMM-CSIC, Spain. She is the head of the Scanning Probe Microscopy laboratory of the 2D Foundry group and is expert on the advanced modes of the technique, such as Kelvin Probe, Piezo Force and Magnetic Force Microscopy. Her research focuses on the characterization and manipulation of functional properties across diverse systems, with a particular emphasis on nanostructures and interfaces. The systems investigated during her research trajectory range from self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and molecular switches to complex oxide heterostructures and superconducting materials. Presently, her primary research focus revolves around the exploration of 2D materials and heterostructures. Utilizing Scanning Probe Microscopy, she conducts in-situ characterizations of these systems and devices under challenging conditions, such as in-operando or under strain, scrutinizing the induced effects at local scale.

Carmen Munuera

Recent AFM-related papers:

• Orfila G., Sanchez-Manzano D., Arora A., Cuellar F., Ruiz-Gómez S., Rodriguez-Corvillo S., López S., Peralta A., Carreira S. J., Gallego F., Tornos J., Rouco V., Riquelme J. J., Munuera C., Mompean F. J., Garcia-Hernandez M., Sefrioui Z., Villegas J. E., Perez L., Rivera-Calzada A., Leon C., Valencia S. & Santamaria J. (2023) Large Magnetoresistance of Isolated Domain Walls in La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 Nanowires Advanced Materials 35 (33) 2211176

• Palai S. K., Dyksik M., Sokolowski N., Ciorga M., Viso E. S., Xie Y., Schubert A., Taniguchi T., Watanabe K., Maude D. K., Surrente A., Baranowski M., Castellanos-Gomez A., Munuera C. & Plochocka P. (2023) Approaching the Intrinsic Properties of Moiré Structures Using Atomic Force Microscopy Ironing Nano Letters 23, 11, 4749–4755

• Muñoz R., León-Boigues L., López-Elvira E., Munuera C., Vázquez L., Mompeán F., Martín-Gago J. A., Palacio I. & García-Hernández M. (2023) Acrylates Polymerization on Covalent Plasma-Assisted Functionalized Graphene: A Route to Synthesize Hybrid Functional Materials ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 15, 39, 46171–46180

• Correa A., Mompeán F., Guillamón I., Herrera E., García-Hernández M., Yamamoto T., Kashiwagi T., Kadowaki K., Buzdin A. I., Suderow H. & Munuera C. (2019) Attractive interaction between superconducting vortices in tilted magnetic fields Communications Physics 2 31

Biography: Carmen completed her undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of Seville, Spain, earning her Bachelor's degree, along with the Extraordinary Bachelor's Award from the Faculty of Physics. She pursued her doctoral training at the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid (ICMM-CSIC), obtaining in 2007 the PhD title from the Autonomous University of Madrid. Her doctoral research, supervised by Prof. Carmen Ocal,  focused on the relationship between functional and structural properties in self-assembled monolayers, utilizing the Scanning Probe Microscopy technique.

She carried out a first postdoctoral stay at the Material Science Institute in Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) where she helped Prof. Ocal setting up the SPM laboratory of the current “Group of Physical Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces”. In 2008 she became a postdoctoral fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Metal Research, in Stuttgart. Her research interests reoriented after this postdoctoral stage, focusing on the nanoscale study of complex oxides heterostructures and the novel properties arising at the interfaces in these systems.

In 2010 she moved back to the ICMM joining the group of Prof. Mar García-Hernández, to set up a three axis vector magnet system for cryogenic scanning probe microscopy. This system was crucial to her investigation and motivated her interest in one of her actual research lines: the characterization and manipulation by MFM of the vortex lattice in layered superconductors.

Since 2017, she has been part of the 2DFoundry group at ICMM, heading the Scanning Probe Microscopy laboratory and focusing on the study of van der Waals materials.

Carmen's research contributions have been consistently recognized, with fellowships obtained through open and competitive calls supporting her various research stages (FPU, Postdoctoral MEC, Juan de la Cierva and Ramón y Cajal)  In 2011, she was honored with the Young Scientist Award from the Royal Science Academy of Seville for her outstanding research work.

Twitter: @CarmenMunuera1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmen-munuera-lopez-306b27200/

Webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/munueralab

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Dr Irma Kuljanishvili

Irma Kuljanishvili is the Department Chair and an Associate Professor of Physics at Saint Louis University, USA. Her research interests are focused on novel approaches for design and characterization of advanced 1D and 2D nanomaterials and their applications in electronics, photonics, quantum science and medicine. She develops innovative methods to study selective synthesis of materials and interface engineering, which includes controlled growth and fabrication of atomically thin 2D nanomaterials, heterostructures, and 1D nanowires and carbon nanotubes. Irma’s research is highly interdisciplinary, bridging physics, materials science, chemistry and mechanics of interfaces. In her research she uses a variety of methods including advanced Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopy techniques, AFM assisted lithography and patterning, optical methods such as Raman spectroscopy, PL and XPS methods, for materials interfaces and device studies. Scalable Chemical Vapor Deposition and mask free direct write fabrications techniques are used in Dr. Kuljanishvili's lab to identify more sustainable ways to produce new materials and study physics at the interface of the advanced multilayered systems. 

Recent AFM-related papers:

• McCormack K., Schaper N., Kim Y., Hensley D. K.,  Kravchenko I., Lavrik N. V., Gosztola D. J., Pantano M. F. & Kuljanishvili I. (2022) Enabling a novel approach to a controlled fabrication of 1D crystalline nanowires on suspended microstructures of arbitrary geometries using two direct-writing technologies Materials Today Nano 20 100241

• Schaper N., Alameri D., Kim Y., Thomas B., McCormack K., Chan M., Divan R., Gosztola D. J., Liu Y. & Kuljanishvili I. (2021) Controlled Fabrication of Quality ZnO NWs/CNTs and ZnO NWs/Gr Heterostructures via Direct Two-Step CVD Method Nanomaterials 11 1836

• Alameri D., Nasr J. R., Karbach D., Liu Y., Divan R., Saptarshi Das S. & Kuljanishvili I. (2019) Mask-free patterning and selective CVD growth of 2D-TMDCs semiconductors Semicond. Sci. Technol. 34 085010

• Dong R., Moore L., Aripova N., Williamson C., Schurz R., Liu Y., Ocolac L. E. & Kuljanishvili I. (2016) Bottom-up direct writing approach for controlled fabrication of WS2/MoS2 heterostructure systems RSC Advances 71

Biography: Irma received her PhD from Michigan State University in low temperature experimental condensed matter physics in 2005. Her PhD work was focused on Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy studies of dopant molecules in semiconductor heterostructures. She continued her postdoctoral research at Harvard and Northwestern University from 2006-2011. She joined Saint Louis University, Department of Physics in 2011 and she is currently a tenured Associate Professor and Department Chairperson. She has published research papers in top ranked scientific journals Nature Physics, Materials Today Nano, Advanced Materials Interfaces, Nanoscale Advances, Small. Her work has been featured on covers of scientific journals, selected as Editor’s pick, and included in the collection of the most read popular articles.  She has two U.S patents (2020), and one patent application (2023).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irma-kuljanishvili-257bb77b/

Webpage: https://www.slu.edu/science-and-engineering/academics/physics/faculty/kuljanishvili-irma.php

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Dr Holly Linford

Holly Linford is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Dr Antonio Benedetto’s NanoBioPhysics lab at University College Dublin, Ireland, investigating the interactions of ionic liquids (ILs) with biomembranes and live cells by atomic force microscopy and other approaches, as part of a 4-years cross-disciplinary major research grant recently awarded to Dr Benedetto by Science Foundation Ireland. ILs are known to interact with the cell membrane and this is thought to be key to their toxicity. By using AFM in combination with biological assays, the group aims to determine the mechanism of action of ILs and identify effects at subtoxic concentrations.

Holly Linford

Recent AFM-related papers:

Chu J., Metcalfe P., Linford H. V., Zhao S., Goycoolea F. M., Chen S., Ye X., Holmes M. & Orfila C.(2022) Short-time acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation improves dispersibility and functionality of pectin-rich biopolymers from citrus waste Journal of Cleaner Production 330, 129789

Rongkaumpan G., Amsbury S., Andablo-Reyes E., Linford H., Connell S., Knox J. P., Sarkar A., Benitez-Alfonso Y. & Orfila C. (2019) Cell Wall Polymer Composition and Spatial Distribution in Ripe Banana and Mango Fruit: Implications for Cell Adhesion and Texture Perception Frontiers in Plant Science 10

Biography: Holly began her journey in science in the chemistry department of Durham University (UK) and there discovered a love for advanced microscopy during her master's project. Following on from that, she took up AFM as part of her PhD at the University of Leeds (UK) with Dr Simon Connell. In this, Holly used AFM, along with a wide range of other biophysical and biochemical techniques, to probe the polymers and interactions that play a role in inter-cell adhesion in plant tissue. After completing her PhD, Holly moved to Dublin to join the group of Dr Antonio Benedetto at UCD, continuing to use AFM as a key technique for mechanical characterisation of cells on the nanoscale, this time looking at the interactions of ionic liquids with the mammalian cell membrane.

Twitter: @HollyVLinford

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-linford-5bb280159/

Webpage: https://www.antoniobenedetto.eu/Members/

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Dr Ana-Maria Zaske

Ana-Maria Zaske is the director of the Atomic force microscopy (AFM) core facility in the Internal Medicine Cardiology Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX. USA. Her laboratory has emerged as a key platform for studying the morphological and nanomechanical properties of living biological systems.

The mission of Ana-Maria’s AFM core facility is to explore all meaningful ways to assess experimental trials to mitigate diseases and facilitate advanced life science research. She explains that the investigation of nanomechanical properties, at the single-cell and single-molecule level, is already advancing the development of new targeted diagnostics and therapies. She has the ability to image, probe and manipulate biological systems to address the needs of scientific and medical investigations.

An area of major interest in her lab is to evaluate the effects of several physiological processes by measuring the elastic response on cells and tissues. She mentioned that the elasticity of the cell membrane can vary between cell types as a function of growth, differentiation, disease or treatment. She is able to evaluate the effects of a drug in cancer cells, analyse the efficiency of skin healing, or simply observe the changes in DNA structures, all at the nano-metric scale.

Additionally, her AFM facility can map the distribution of elastic responses on the sample surface by combining force curve measurements with topographical imaging. She emphasises that the unique properties of Atomic Force Microscopy offer unlimited applications in medical research. That this technology can provide valuable insights about the mechanisms of a disease and assess a successful treatment pathway for its cure.

Recent AFM-related papers:

• Si H., Zhao N., Pedroza A., Zaske A. M., Rosen J. M., Creighton C. J. & Roarty K. (2022) Noncanonical Wnt/Ror2 signaling regulates cell-matrix adhesion to prompt directional t.umor cell invasion in breast cancer Mol Biol Cell. 33 (11)

• Atieh Y., Wyatt T., Zaske A. M., Eisenhoffer G. T. (2021) Pulsatile contractions promote apoptotic cell extrusion in epithelial tissues Curr Biol. 31 (6) : 1129-1140 

• Liang H., Mu H., Jean-Francois F., Lakshman B., Sarkar-Banerjee S., Zhuang Y., Zeng Y., Gao W, Zaske A. M., Nissley D. W., Gorfe A. A., Zhao W., Zhou Y. (2019) Membrane curvature sensing of the lipid-anchored K-Ras small GTPase Life Science Alliance 2 (4)

Biography: Ana-Maria received her PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, in the UK where she was first trained in high resolution Atomic Force Microscopy. She went back to her native country and used Atomic Force Microscopy to characterize membrane receptors in follicular cells, as Research Associated in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology in the UNAM Mexico. In 2009 she was an award winner in recognition of her Scientific Excellence for presenting one of the 5 best posters at the “Seeing at the Nanoscale VII Conference” held in Santa Barbara CA by the VEECO company. She later joined UTHealth and became the director of the AFM core facility, as a part of the Internal Medicine Cardiology Division in Houston, TX. During the past 15 years, Dr. Zaske has gained relevant experience in the operation and applications of Atomic Force Microscopy to promote biomedical research.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-maria-zaske-phd-research-scientist-762aab52/   

Webpage: https://uthealth.corefacilities.org/service_center/show_external/3535?name=uthealth-atomic-force-microscopy

Debismita Dutta

Debismita Dutta is a 3rd year PhD student at the Advanced Materials and Surfaces Group, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, Ireland. She studies Aurivillius phase multiferroic thin films for novel data storage applications in her research project funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Magnetoelectric multiferroics are a type of material that showcase coupled ordered parameters of ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism. In essence, their magnetic polarization can be switched with an electric field, and vice versa, in a manner that retains the switched state even in the absence of the said field- hence becoming 'memory'. These materials also hold potential for devices with multiple memory states, which can store and process more than 8 times the amount of data in the same volume of thin film than current devices. Her work focuses on optimizing industry-relevant synthesis processes like DLI-CVD (Direct Liquid Injection-Chemical Vapor Deposition) to tackle the synthesis challenges that stand in the way of realizing a device roadmap for multiferroic devices. She uses Scanning Probe Microscopy techniques like Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM), Variable Field PFM, Scanning Kelvin Probe Microscopy (SKPFM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to study the grain, domain, and multiferroic characteristics of Aurivillius phase thin films. 

Debismita Dutta

Recent AFM-related paper:

Keeney L., Colfer L., Dutta D., Schmidt M. & Wei G. (2023) What lies beneath? Investigations of atomic force microscopy-based nano-machining to reveal sub-surface ferroelectric domain configurations in ultrathin films Microstructures 3:2023041.

Biography: Debismita is an Indian researcher who is passionate about exploring exciting new physics in materials by manoeuvring their chemical morphology. She holds a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering and has been very curious about materials research since her undergraduate days. Having done multiple competitive research internships in institutes like National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), as well as Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), she knew she wanted to do a PhD. in materials science. Now she works in Micro Nano Systems in Tyndall National Institute under the supervision of Dr. Lynette Keeney and Dr. Michael Nolan in an SFI funded project. Besides her research, she also enjoys participating in public engagement events, some of which include Famelab Ireland, where she was a national finalist, and 3 Minute Thesis (3MT), where she was the university runner up. She enjoys talking about her work, and would love to discuss her research with you over email or on her social media handles listed below.

Email: debismita.dutta@tyndall.ie

Twitter: @Debbie7D

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debismitadutta/

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Are you a woman conducting AFM research or know of someone you would like to nominate to be featured in our next #WomenInAFM campaign? Contact us at community@nunano.com!

Professor Zoya Leonenko

Zoya Leonenko is a well-known expert in biophysics and scanning probe microscopy and is the author of over 90 scientific publications and several book chapters.

Zoya leads a nanoscale biophysics research group at the University of Waterloo, Canada. She uses advanced scanning probe microscopy and other biophysical methods, such atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), nanoscale electrophysiology, plasmonic sensing with SPR, to study biophysics of lipids and lipid-protein interactions, interactions of nanoparticles with lipid membrane and monolayers, and to develop novel application of lipid films in biomedical nanotechnology. Her team provided significant advancement of knowledge in understanding the role of nanoscale structure of lipid membrane in molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recently together with collaborators she initiated a new research program in quantum biology, which has a focus to uncover new quantum phenomena in biology and neuroscience.

Zoya Leonenko

Recent AFM-related papers:

• McRae D. M. & Leonenko Z. (2024) Applications of scanning probe microscopy in neuroscience research J. Phys. Mater. 7 012004

• Robinson M., Filice C. T., McRae D. M & Leonenko Z. (2023) Atomic force microscopy and other scanning probe microscopy methods to study nanoscale domains in model lipid membranes Advances in Physics: X 8 (1)

• Robinson, M., Lou, J., Mehrazma, B., Rauk, A., Beazely, M. & Leonenko, Z. (2021) Pseudopeptide Amyloid Aggregation Inhibitors: In Silico, Single Molecule and Cell Viability Studies Int. J. Mol. Sci. 22 1051

• Henderson R. D. E., Filice C. T., Wettig S & Leonenko. Z. (2021) Kelvin probe force microscopy to study electrostatic interactions of DNA with lipid-gemini surfactant monolayers for gene delivery Soft Matter 17, 826-833

• Drolle E., Ngo W., Leonenko Z., Subbaraman L & Jones L. (2020) Nanoscale Characteristics of Ocular Lipid Thin Films Using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Translational Vision Science and Technology 9(7), 41

Biography: Zoya has PhD in Chemical Physics and is a Professor at University of Waterloo, Canada. She holds a joint position in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Department of Biology and is a member of the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN). Zoya joined the University of Waterloo in 2007. Prior to this, she worked at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, USA and the University of Calgary, Canada as an Assistant Professor. She was also a recipient of an Invited Professorship Award from the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France in 2012 and NSERC University Faculty Award in 2008-2012 and currently holds University Research Chair Award. Leonenko’s laboratory is supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) among other grants. She has made a significant impact on the establishment and subsequent rapid rise of the Biophysical Society of Canada (BSC) by organizing its very first annual meeting at Waterloo in 2015 and served as its President in 2019-2021.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoya-leonenko-0b4444a4/

Webpage: https://uwaterloo.ca/leonenko-research-group/profile/zoya-leonenko