Affiliation: Associate Professor (tenure track), Physics and Astronomy & Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia. Affiliate member of the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering
Website: https://leslielab.msl.ubc.ca/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrina-leslie-68bb46a3/?skipRedirect=true
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Research Summary:
Our laboratory develops quantitative single-molecule and single-cell imaging platforms that integrate physical confinement with label-free interferometric scattering microscopy and multi-channel fluorescence imaging. Central to this work is Convex Lens-induced Confinement (CLiC), a technique enabling high-throughput, single-particle analysis without surface tethering.
We have outlined the conceptual and methodological framework for studying molecular interactions in cell-like environments using confined single-molecule imaging (Leslie et al., Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 2019). Building on this foundation, we have demonstrated multiparametric characterization of individual nanoparticles using combined confocal fluorescence and interferometric scattering microscopy with microfluidic confinement (Boateng et al., Nano Letters, 2025) and extended this methodology to live-cell imaging (in
preparation, 2026).
By reducing sample requirements while increasing detection precision, our techniques expand the toolkit of quantitative biophysics and support applications ranging from nucleic acid biophysics to nanoparticle therapeutics and drug discovery. By striving to combine our single-molecule and single-cell imaging data with multi-scale biological data, acquired by working hand-in-hand with health scientists, we aspire to innovate new medicines and nanomaterials with functional properties that we understand across multiple scales