State-of-the-Art Nanoanalytics for Biomedical Research

Laboratory Focus

Founded in 2007, the Nano Bioanalytics Laboratory at Trinity College Dublin investigates biology at the single-molecule and nanoscale level. We develop innovative tools that allow precise observation of biological processes, with direct relevance to medicine and biotechnology. Our work spans nucleic acids, protein interactions, and microbial systems, while also exploring how these molecular mechanisms shape health and disease.

The Challenge

The world faces major challenges in developing new medicines. The average cost of bringing a therapy to patients exceeds $2 billion and takes more than 10 years, while more than 80 percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials. A central reason is that the laboratory methods used today cannot fully capture how real human cells and patient-derived tissues respond to treatment, which creates uncertainty and increases the risk of late-stage failure.

Fluorescent methods such as immunofluorescence, nucleic acid labeling, and live-cell tracking are at the core of translational research, diagnostics discovery, and biomedical studies. They allow scientists to mark specific molecules and follow their behavior in cells and tissues with great precision. Because of the wide range of available spectral dyes and labels, fluorescence is uniquely valuable as the only method that can provide specific molecular identification in complex biological systems.

The starting point for these methods is fluorescent microscopy, which provides the platform for detection and visualization. It is widely available, relatively inexpensive, and has become indispensable for drug testing, biomarker discovery, and disease monitoring.

Yet despite this central role, fluorescent microscopy has important limitations. Signals often fade due to photobleaching, restricting how long samples can be studied, and its resolution is not always sufficient to capture molecular events inside human cells. These constraints reduce the reliability of data and slow down progress in translational medicine.

The StaRes Solution

The StaRes project, funded by Enterprise Ireland, responds to these needs. StaRes is creating a nanoanalytics platform designed to make advanced imaging of human cells and patient-derived tissues more accessible, enabling clear insights into how diseases are influenced by drugs at the molecular level. This platform combines high sensitivity with usability, allowing laboratories to generate reliable datasets without the cost and complexity of current systems. By bridging molecular resolution with intact cell and tissue analysis, StaRes aims to transform how drug responses are studied in both research and translational settings.

"StaRes is like a focused gaze, providing a sharper lens on molecular events in human biology, and helping to connect laboratory discovery more directly with patient care."

Applications

Applications: StaRes has wide-ranging applications in drug development, including the study of small molecules, biologics, gene and RNA therapies, and diagnostics discovery. By supporting studies from single molecules in cells to complex 3D tissues, the platform aims to bridge laboratory discovery with translational and clinical research.

A multidisciplinary team of biochemists, biophysicists, and engineers is creating StaRes as a gazing lens into the depths of the cellular universe, with the clear purpose of understanding disease and developing better treatments for patients.