The Nano Life Sciences researchers investigate the fields of synthetic biology, computational biology, protein structure, intermolecular membrane dynamics and microfluidics devices for biological analysis.

Synthetic biology is a young field that uses genetic engineering and DNA synthesis to develop new proteins and genetic circuits. Proteins are the nanoscale machinery of life while genetic circuits represent computational "logic" capabilities in cells. Research in this field could lead to a "toolkit" for "re-programming" bacteria to produce useful functions.
Computational biology is the use of computers and databases to aid biological research. It utilizes tools developed through bioinformatics and systems biology. Its ultimate goal is to develop computer programs, such as SimCell, to accurately model natural cellular events such as metabolism, chemotaxis and intracellular signalling.
The interaction of proteins and lipids in membranes defines the boundaries of cells and mediates their interaction with their environment as well as with neighbouring cells. Understanding this boundary layer may lead to better regulation of cell-cell communication in tissue and tumour formation. Fluorescence photobleaching, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and dynamic image correlation spectroscopy techniques provide single molecule resolution of interactions on the membrane surface.
Determination of protein structure and the dynamics of protein folding is crucial to our understanding of protein function and design of novel proteins. This work applies NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and other devices like optical tweezers.
Microfluidic devices, capable of sample pre-treatment, biochemical reaction and product separation all integrated onto a single microchip are a new development arising from microfabrication technology. These "lab-on-a-chip" devices can manipulate and analyse the contents of single cells with great precision and sensitivity. Such devices may replace some conventional equipment found in biology laboratories and may lead to faster and less expensive clinical diagnostics.