SINGLE MOLECULE BIOPHYSICS LAB @ BSU

Our research interest in the field of biophysics is to use physics techniques to study biological systems at the single molecule level. This research is done in collaboration with Williams Lab at Northeastern University, Gelles Lab at Brandeis University and Westerlund Lab at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. We have custom-built a dual beam optical tweezers setup to carry out the research here at BSU. We use it to trap single DNA molecules and study the interactions of prospective cancer drugs and proteins with DNA.

Our Collaborators

WILLIAMS LAB

GELLES LAB

PRESENTATIONS

RESEARCH

Research

Studying Drug-DNA Interactions

Once we have a single DNA molecule, we can flow the small molecules (prospective drugs for cancer/HIV), then stretch and relax the DNA in the presence of the molecules. This allows us to quantify the binding properties and identify the binding mechanism of the potential drug of interest.

 

Current Projects and Project Leaders

Binuclear Ruthenium Threading Complexes: Adam Jabak & Nicholas Bryden

Doxorubicin: Zachary Ells & Brian Dolle

Nogalamycin: Noah Whitney

Polymerase Kappa: Josh Watts

Dual Beam Optical Tweezers

Finely focused lasers are capable of trapping micron size beads. In our dual beam optical tweezers setup, two counter-propagating laser beams are focused inside a flow cell to tap micron-sized polystyrene beads. Once a bead is trapped with the laser, it is attached to a micropipette (which is part of the flow cell) by suction.  Then another bead is trapped by the laser and a single DNA molecule is chemically attached between the bead in the trap and bead attached to the micropipette.  The DNA can be mechanically manipulated by moving the flow cell with the help of a piezoelectric stage.