Tools and methods development
Photothermal microscopy: super-resolution imaging, single particle tracking, and real-time single nanoparticle kinetics
Spherical crystallography with nanoparticles and virus proteins.
Projects
Fundamental Studies
Function and mechanisms in biological nanoparticles: viruses and bacterial adhesives
How virus assembles spontaneously remains one of the greatest unanswered questions of physical virology. A number of methods, such as small angle X-ray and neutron scattering, electron and light microscopy have been applied to try and understand this fundamental process. We examine the thermodynamic equilibrium and kinetics of assembly by light scattering, fluorescence measurements of the amount of proteins bound in a shell around the template and by in vitro single particle imaging.
- Interactions driving virus-like particle self-assembly
- In singulo kinetics of assembly
Applications
Fabrication and testing of probes for virus trafficking
Electromagnetic interactions in self-assembled metallo-dielectric biomaterials