Research

Our research interests lie at the interface of nanotechnology and cellular biophysics, and focus on the physics of signaling at the cell membrane. Some of us develop and investigate thermo-magnetic remote stimulation of proteins and cells using nanotechnology to study signaling networks. Others in our group investigate the cell membrane ultra-structure and how it modulates cell signaling for which we have developed two methods to image the nanoscale structure. Currently, we investigate how temperature, calcium concentration, protein-dimerization and cholesterol influence the ultrastructure, and how this structure modulates immune cell signaling.

More details are here:
1. Local magnetic nanoparticle heating for protein and cell stimulation
2. Thermal noise imaging to resolve membrane ultra-structure
3. bimFCS - studying the influence of membrane ultra-structure on immune cell signaling:
- How do adjuvants or fever help immune signaling?
- How does Ca⁺⁺ influence membrane structure?

Post-doc and Student Opportunities

We always look for motivated, excited individuals (postdocs as well as students) with backgrounds in Neuroscience, Bioengineering or Biophysics to join our efforts. There are opportunities in research of thermomagnetic stimulation and silencing of neurons deep in the brain, as well as in fundamental cell membrane biophysics and the effects of anesthetics, fever and adjuvnats on cell signaling. Please apply with your CV to Arnd Pralle.

Funding

	NIH BRAIN award (R01MH111872, 2016-20) to develop magnetothermal genetic neurosilencing an apply with multiplexing to decision making in rats
	NIH EUREKA award (R01MH094730, 2011-16) to apply magnetogenetics to mouse behavior
	NIH R21 award (R21AI097879-01, 2012-14) to invesitgate the membrane biophysics of adjuvants mediated immunomodulation
	Human Frontier Sciene Program award (HFSP RGP0052, 2012-16) to optimize thermomagnetic stimulation and to genetically encode it
	MRI 0923133 to establish a confocal microscopy facility for pulsed-light imaging for FLIM and FCS between Biology and Physics

News

------- 2018 -------
Sept 2018
- Arnd presents a talk at the SGP at Woods Hole, MA
Aug 2018
- Rahul's paper on magnetothermal silencing of neurons appears in Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Arnd presents an invited talk at the ACS Nanomedicine Colloquium in Boston
- Rahul defends his thesis - Congrats Dr. Munshi ! (Photos)
Apr 2018
- Arnd presents an invited talk at the MRS Spring meeting in Phoenix
Feb 2018
- Rahul and Mike present posters at the 62nd Ann. Biophysics Conf

------- 2017 -------
Nov 2017
- Rahul and Arnd present talks at Fall MRS meeting
Sept 2017
- Arnd presents an invited talk at Molecular Basis of Life in Bochum, Germany
Aug 2017
- Rahul's paper appears in eLife and is discusses in UB news
Jul 2017
- Dr. Jin gradautes and leaves us for a research engineering position in Shanghai. Good luck!
Feb 2017
- Jin, Rahul, and Arnd present posters and a talk at 61st Ann. Biophysics Conf

------- 2016 -------
Dec 2016
- Arnd presents at the BRAIN iniative PI meeting in DC and at the MPI for Cell Biol in Dresden - we welcome Min Choi as new postdoc Oct 2016
- our review on compartmentalization of the cell membrane appears in J of Molecular Biology.
Sept 2016
- our BRAIN iniative R01 with groups from MIT and Harvard got funded
June 2016
- Arnd gives invited talk at Y-IBS Workshop "Physical Tools to Control Biological Systems: from Optogenetics to Magnetism" at Yonsei U. Seoul, Korea
May 2016
- Arnd presents Magnetogenetics at the Keystone Symposia "State of the Brain" in Alpbach Austria
April 2016
- Arnd presents TNI to study lipid nanodomains at the COBRE symposium in Delaware
Mar 2016
- Jin, Rahul, Muhammed, and Arnd present posters and a talk at 60th Ann. Biophysics Conf

------- 2015 -------
Oct 2016
- our paper on core-shell magnetic nanoparticles appears in Chemistry of Materials.
June 2015
- Evan's paper on fever in immune signaling appeared
Feb 2015
- Jin, Rahul, Muhammed, and Arnd present posters and a talk at 59th Ann. Biophysics Conf
- our bimFCS was published in PLOS one
Jan 2015
- we congratulate Idoia to securing a competitive fellowship from the Basque Gov

------- 2014 -------
Aug - Nov 2014
- Arnd spends a sabbatical with W. Parak the U Marburg and S. Hell at the MPI in Göttingen
July 2014
- Arnd presents at the HFSP meeting in Lugano
June 2014
- Yun-Hsiang's paper is accepted
- group dinner to honor Kelly's move (pic)
April 2014
- Arnd gives a colloquim at U Akron
March 2014
- welcome Idoia as postdoc
Feb 2014
- Jin, Muhammed and Arnd present at 58th Ann. Biophysics Conf

------- 2013 -------
Nov 2013
- Heng leaves for her new job at Illumina, CA
- Arnd gives a talk at the SUNY BRAIN meeting
- Arnd is invited speaker at Nanoscience and Healthcare in Paris
Oct 2013
- Arnd gives a colloquim at U Mass Medschool
Aug/Sept 2013
- Yunhsiang defends his Ph.D. thesis - congratulations! well deserved
- summer w 3 manuscripts submitted
June/July 2013
- Arnd presents at the HFSP meeting in Strassbourg - the team gets together
- Arnd participates in the NIH EUREKA review panel
May 2013
- Arnd talks at the ICREA Symposioum in Barcelona
- Junhong Choi leaves us for Stanford grad school - good luck
- Heng and Junhong graduate
April 2013
- welcome Shahnaz as postdoc
- Rahul Munshi receives Cambi award and joins us
March 2013
- welcome Jason to our group
- Hongwang presents at the APS meeting
- congrats to Junhong for being accepted to grad schoo in Stanford, Urbana, Ann Arbor and Chicago
Feb 2013
- Arnd presented an invited talk at the BiOS/Photonics West SPIE conference
- Heng, Jin, Muhammed, Yunhsiang and Junhong present at 57th Ann. Biophysics Conf
Jan 2013
- a video summary of our publication with Sheldon Park's group has been posted

------- 2012 -------
Nov 2012
- Junhong receives a Honors College Research Creativity Grant. Congrats!
Oct 2012
- Heng defends her Ph.D. thesis - congratulations! well done
- we've submitted a record 6 abstracts for the Biophysics conference in Feb. 2013
Sept 2012
- Evan's paper on Thermal modulation of lymphocyte activation gets submitted!
Aug 2012
- Arnd is interviewed by NOVA ScienceNOW and Discovery Magazine for future episodes on brain stimulation techniques
July 2012
- Katie moves to Cornell to begin her graduate studies - we wish her success
- Arnd presents Yunhsiang's results at the Single Molecule GRC in Vermont
May 2012
- Physics UGs Junhong Choi and Zach van Zant join the lab to do their honors theses
- Katie graduates with honors and decides to spend the summer in the lab
April 2012
- Graduate student Maral and Jin both receive a Cambi fellowhip to pursuit Biophysics research
- Katie presents her honors thesis on modeling nanoparticle heating
- Arnd presents a talk on membrane structure at UIUC
March 2012
Feb 2012
- Katie, Heng, Muhammed, Yunhsiang and Arnd went to the Biophysics conference and presented their work
older news here