Karedla Group | Quantitative Immunodynamics Laboratory

1. Nanoscale Electrometry: Decoding the Physicochemical Language of the Cell

Our first objective is to pioneer surface-sensitive techniques, such as Metal-Induced Energy Transfer (MIET), to quantify the nanoscale physics of immune signalling. While traditional microscopes show us where molecules are, we develop methods to measure their electrical charge (electrometry) and structural changes (nanometry) at high speed. Through these high-precision measurements, we seek to understand how electrostatic interactions and membrane movements at the nanoscale function as a physical switch for immune responses. This work reveals how the physical state of a membrane can drive or block an immune response, providing a new window into the fundamental rules of how immune cells recognize and respond to threats. 

2. Capturing multi-scale dynamics with next-generation microscopy 

A major frontier in our lab is building next-generation imaging platforms that relax the usual trade-offs between spatial resolution, temporal speed, and field of view. To understand live immune-cell behaviour, we need to observe molecular events across entire cell surfaces and contact zones while still capturing fast dynamics, down to the millisecond timescales on which molecular dynamics and trafficking unfold. Many super-resolution approaches act like “keyholes”: they reveal extraordinary detail, but only over small areas or at acquisition speeds that miss rapid, distributed events.

Immune responses, however, are coordinated across large, crowded interfaces where receptor organisation, membrane rearrangements, and molecular transport occur simultaneously. By engineering high-speed, large-field-of-view biophotonic systems, we aim to capture rare, decisive events at scale, without sacrificing quantitative precision. This enables a shift from studying isolated interactions to mapping immunodynamics holistically, building a physical picture of how molecules, membranes, and cells coordinate decisions in complex environments such as organoids and native tissues.