Nynke Dekker

Date

15 October 2014

Host  

Madhavi Krishnan

Title

The Impact of Physics on Discoveries in the Bio-Molecular World

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been steady progress in both our ability to produce biological material and in our ability to manipute matter at small length scales. These two developments merge in a fascinating area of confluence called single-molecule biophysics in which an understanding of biological matter from physical principles becomes possible. I will illustrate the development of this interdisciplinary field and point out how several newly-developed single-molecule force and torque spectroscopy techniques allow us to shed light on genomic processes such as transcription, replication, and DNA compaction. Lastly, as the true environment of biological molecules is the living cell, I will demonstrate our ability to track replication inside bacterial cells, and discuss implications for the future.