Friday, October 27, 2006
Measuring Individual Biological Molecules with Visible Light
Everett Lipman
Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
The machinery of life arises from interactions between nucleic acid and protein molecules, whose functions depend on the three-dimensional shapes into which they fold. By means of the near-field electromagnetic interaction between attached fluorescent dyes, the distance between two points on a single biomolecule can be measured with a resolution that far exceeds that of optical microscopes. This technique will be described, and examples will be given of how we use it to obtain previously inaccessible information about protein self-assembly and the physical properties of biological polymers.
Refreshments at 4:00 PM. Seminar begins at 4:10 PM.
Building 8 (Science Bldg.) - Room 241
For further information, please call (909) 869-4014
