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Dr. Richard Taylor

  • Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Room: A.3.242
  • Telephone: +49 9131 7133352
  • E-mail

I am interested in the potential of interferometric scattering microscopy to uncover the hidden dynamics of biology at the nanoscale, in particular, in exploring what we can learn about membrane organization and cellular function. I am also excited to develop nanofluidic tools to facilitate novel investigations into single-cell biology via advanced optical microscopies.

2025

Bottom-up investigation of spatiotemporal glycocalyx dynamics with interferometric scattering microscopy

Carla M. Brunner, Lorenz Pietsch, Ingo vom Sondern, Michael Röhrl, Cristian Popov, Marius F.W. Trollmann, Richard W. Taylor, Martin Blessing, Cornelia Holler, et al.

Journal of the American Chemical Society 147 32799-32808 (2025) | Journal | PDF

Over recent decades, the glycocalyx, an extracellular organelle comprised of a multitude of glycolipids, glycoproteins, proteoglycans and glycoRNA, has gained considerable interest in cellular biology. While research in this field has revealed its tremendous importance in evermore aspects of physiological and pathological cellular processes, many of the principles that govern the role of the glycocalyx in these processes on a molecular level are still unknown. In order to unravel the fundamental laws underlying glycocalyx function, new technologies are required that enable the distinction between individual subprocesses within the intricate environment of the glycocalyx. Here, we establish an experimental platform to investigate the dynamics of the glycocalyx at the nanometer and microsecond length and time scales in a bottom-up fashion. We synthesized defined model glycans and installed them on supported lipid bilayers, assembling glycocalyx model systems with tunable properties. By investigating these tunable model systems with interferometric scattering (iSCAT) microscopy, we gain access to the required spatiotemporal resolution. We found a strong correlation between the molecular structure of several investigated model glycans and global dynamics of the system. Our findings are corroborated by atomistic and coarsegrained molecular dynamics simulations. Our results provide the first direct experimental evidence on the relationship between glycan structure, organization, and dynamics, offering a robust and versatile basis for a quantitative understanding of glycocalyx biology and physics at the molecular level.

I was born in the United Kingdom where I completed my graduate studies, gaining a Masters (1st, Hons) in Physics from the University of Birmingham in 2009. Thereafter I completed my doctoral studies in 2013 in the Nanophotonics group of Prof. Jeremy J. Baumberg at the University of Cambridge. The subject of my doctoral work was ‘On the sub-nm plasmonics of gold nanoparticles clusters’, which led to a patent for ‘Plasmonic junctions for surface-enhanced spectroscopy’. In 2013 I joined the group of Prof. Sandoghdar to develop interferometric scattering microscopy for application to live cells, becoming a Humboldt Postdoctoral fellow in 2015. In addition to research activities, I also enjoy aiding efforts for scientific outreach, and I also co-organised the first international workshop on interferometric scattering microscopy in 2020.

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