Department of Applied Physics

Description

Biophysics

We optically probe single copies of fluorescent molecules in solution and in living cells, one at a time, with a combination of single-fluorophore labeling, active-control superresolution microscopy, stimulated emission depletion microscopey, FRET/polarization studies, and fluctuation analysis. In collaboration with appropriate biologists in the BioX program, we seek to understand the dynamical behavior of single biomolecules such as chaperonins when ensemble averaging is removed, and we are measuring the protein localization patterns both in bacteria and in eukaryotic cells. A new kind of trap we have invented, the ABEL trap, allows us to grab and manipulate single biomolecules in solution for extended analysis.

Nanoscience and Quantum Engineering

We optically probe single copies of fluorescent molecules in solution and in living cells, one at a time, with a combination of single-fluorophore labeling, active-control superresolution microscopy, stimulated emission depletion microscopey, FRET/polarization studies, and fluctuation analysis. In collaboration with appropriate biologists in the BioX program, we seek to understand the dynamical behavior of single biomolecules such as chaperonins when ensemble averaging is removed, and we are measuring the protein localization patterns both in bacteria and in eukaryotic cells. A new kind of trap we have invented, the ABEL trap, allows us to grab and manipulate single biomolecules in solution for extended analysis.

Courses Taught

• Physical Chemistry

Selected Publications

• Illuminating Single Molecules in Condensed Matter
• Methods of Single-Molecule Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Microscopy
• Improving the Mismatch Between Light and Nanoscale Objects with Gold Bowtie Nanoantennas
• Suppressing Brownian Motion of Individual Biomolecules in Solution
• New Directions in Single-Molecule Imaging and Analysis