Interlaced Optical Force-Fluorescence Measurements for Single Molecule Biophysics

Research question: How does one combine optical tweezer force spectroscopy and single molecule flourescence spectroscopy to study a biological molecule's force exertion and configuration changes?

Optical trapping systems are used to study the forces involved in the functioning of various biological molecules, such as DNA, enzymes, and viruses. Such molecules can also be studied with flourescence microscopy, which serves to elucidate their configurational changes. Professor Matthew Lang and his team have devised a method that combines both techniques so that one can study a molecule's structure and forces simultaneously. The group's work is described in their paper, Interlaced Optical Force-Fluorescence Measurements for Single Molecule Biophysics. Their paper and their technique will be discussed in detail in this module.

• An overview that discusses the research and provides some background on the technology and equipment involved.
• A detailed experiment timeline. Selected experiments are linked to audiovisual supplementary information.
• Video interviews with Matthew Lang, Ricardo Brau, Jorge Ferrer, and Peter Tarsa. The authors explain their research experience and their future plans.
• Author profiles for Matthew Lang, Ricardo Brau, Jorger Ferrer, and Peter Tarsa (click on the links at the top of this page).
• The full manuscript (HTML and PDF).
• A glossary of some obscure terms. The glossary is also accessible from the Read the Paper page. Move the mouse over any hyperlinked word and its definition will appear in a tooltip.