We design and synthesise small organic fluorescent molecules — and use them to see things that are otherwise invisible.

Our probes light up the inside of living cells: mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum, lipid droplets, lysosomes. They report on processes as they happen — a cell dying by ferroptosis, a mitochondrion being recycled, a lipid droplet consumed. Others detect bacteria and their biofilms or identify analytes. We build the molecules from scratch, work out the physics of why they glow, and put them to work in living systems.