Major Research Interests
Motor proteins: physical principles of biological force generation, transport processes, “collective machines”, mitotic spindle. Optical tweezers, single-molecule fluorescence.
DNA enzymes: replication, transcription, or packing of DNA, single-molecule experiments to investigate the dynamics of enzymes performing these functions.
Cytoskeletal polymers and cells: semiflexible proteins, non-proteinaceous soft matter model systems, in vitro and in living cells, functional principles of the cytoskeleton, cell division, cell locomotion, cell growth and mechanosensing. Microrheology, laser interferometry.
Protein shells, membranes and viruses: elastic properties of protein assemblies, sheets to tubes (microtubules) and capsids (viruses). Atomic force microscopy.
