Dr. Niko Hildebrandt: The Global Journey of "Captain FRET" on Advancing Nanophotonics

Stephanie Ho
Mar 11
2 min read

Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) is a biophysical, non-radiative process where excited donor fluorophores transfer energy directly to a nearby acceptor fluorophore via dipole-dipole coupling. It is often used to measure molecular distances, conformational changes, and protein interactions in living cells. The technique is widely applied in a variety of fields such as single-molecule experiments, molecular motors, biosensors, and DNA mechanical movements.

The Niko Hildebrandt Lab (NHL) is a team that is creating and developing novel biosensing technologies and integrating these into real-life bioapplications. Specifically, using FRET with lanthanide complexes, lanthanide nanoparticles, quantum dot nanocrystals, and organic dyes. With the use of imaging technologies, their goals are to exploit the unique advantages of these luminescent markers for ultra-sensitive multiplexed detection.

Dr. Niko Hildebrandt

AFFILIATION

Dr. Niko Hildebrandt is a professor and principal investigator of the Niko Hildebrandt Lab in the Department of Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University.

ACADEMIC & TEACHING BACKGROUND

Undergraduate & Graduate studies:

Dr. Hildebrandt completed his Bachelor’s degree of medical physics at the Technical University of Applied Science, Berlin, Germany.

He then completed his PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Potsdam (Germany), where his project focuses on understanding the physics of nanoscale fluorescence interactions.

Teaching and Researching career:

Before coming to the Department of Engineering Physics of McMaster University in 2023, Dr. Hildebrandt lead research groups at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (Germany, 2008-2010), the Institute for Fundamental Electronics (France, 2010-2016), the Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (France, 2016-2019) and the CoBra Laboratory (France, 2019-2023).

Additionally, he lectured as a professor at Universite Paris Saclay (France, 2010-2019) and Universite de Rouen Normandie (France, 2019-2023). He was also a member of the Institut Universitaire de France (France, 2016-2021) and Visiting Research Professor at Seoul National University (South Korea, 2021-2023).

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Dr. Hildebrandt's lab focuses on Forster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) with lanthanide complexes, lanthanide nanoparticles, quantum dot nanocrystals and organic dyes. By using this technology, they aim to use the unique advantages of these luminescent markers for a variety of ultra-sensitive multiplexed detection applications.

So what are lanthanides, and why is Dr. Hildebrandt interested in them? They are rare-earth elements that can emit very stable and long-lasting light signals. In the application of FRET, when pairing with other fluorescent molecules, lanthanides act as powerful donors that transfer energy to nearby dyes. This allows sensitive detection of even a small amount of molecules, as well as biological interactions between these molecules with other structures.

AWARDS & LEADERSHIP

Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship Award (2023)
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Nano-Optical Biosensing and Molecular Diagnostics (2023)

EPISODE OVERVIEW

In this episode, we follow Dr. Niko Hildebrandt as he takes us through his journey from pursuing an acting career in South and Southeast Asia to continuing his academia, which led to his current work on FRET and biosensing technologies. Furthermore, Dr. Hildebrandt walked the listeners through his unique experiences of traveling and working around the world, from Canada, Germany, France, to South Korea, India, and Nepal.