Biography
Matz received his DPhil in ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy from the University of Oxford in 2014. He then moved to ICFO in Spain, initially to apply the ultrafast schemes he had developed to study single molecules. These experiments required a lot of instrument development, a direction that soon became a research line of its own. Based on his work on all-optical single-protein detection and holographic fluorescence and surface enhanced Raman imaging he was awarded a prestigious JIN MINECO fellowship in 2019. The fellowship allowed him to further move into the direction of applying holographic schemes to 3D live cell and tissue imaging. To address one of the major bottlenecks of label-free imaging of biological samples, the intrinsic lack of specificity and contrast, Matz pioneered femtosecond phototransient imaging to restore some specificity. His proof-of-concept works were recognised with an ERC StG for Phototransient Infrared Holography. Matz is an Assistant Professor in the Biophotonics & Medical Imaging group at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the VU Amsterdam.
Research description
He develops innovative optical imaging and sensing platforms for future diagnostics. He is particularly interested in label-free or digital approaches: low-cost key-enablers for democratizing state-of-the-art healthcare globally. His work builds on an interdisciplinary toolbox ranging from molecular biology over ultrafast optics to digital holography with the key-ingredient being creativity. Currently, my playgrounds are: phototransient holography, ultrasensitive nanosizing, high-throughput surface enhanced Raman (SERS) and quantitative mass imaging.
Phototransient holography, enables high-speed widefield observations of photoinduced signals using cameras. Light excites a material, we detect the transient phase-changes, on femtosecond to picosecond timescales. A key-advantage is the transient, rather than steady-state, read-out which enables large field-of-view observations at high signal-to-noise ratios. Currently, we are adopting the technique to biomedical imaging with the long-term goal being to record vibrational, or chemical, fingerprints of biologically and clinically relevant samples.
Ultrasensitive nanosizing, detects particles that would be invisible. It enables better diagnostics, drugs or quality control. We develop the highly sensitive and accurate all-optical tools necessary. Our methods are label-free. It makes them easy and cheap to implement but such methods are often prone to false positives. We are currently addressing this challenge by simultaneously measuring multiple parameters using a single, turn-key, holographic platform. Our target applications are biomedical samples with the long-term goal being to integrated our platforms into routine workflows.
