We are not fully satisfied with current views of how life works. Current molecular descriptions are extraordinarily powerful, but they are not complete. Inside a cell, countless processes can be studied in isolation, but they function collectively, in a coordinated and remarkably coherent way. It is this coherence, emerging from the interactions of parts, that gives rise to what we call life. This is prodigious(!).
We start from the bottom: single molecules, where individual events can be directly observed. From there, we work upward in scale, asking how molecular interactions build into the organized complexity of living systems, and how, when this organization fails, disease follows.

What we like to do

We work in experimental biophysics, focusing on single-molecule fluorescence. We combine this with meso- and macro-scale experiments to link molecular processes to emergent behavior, and we integrate computation and theory to interpret and extend our observations.

This lab led by Nicola Galvanetto opened in March 2026 at the Institute of Structural Biology (IBS) in Grenoble. I'm currently setting up the lab and recruiting postdocs, PhD students, and Master's students. If you're excited by single-molecule experiments and quantitative biophysics, email me.