Illuminating DNA mechanics at the level of a single base pair
Inside the cell, as DNA undergoes thermally induced conformational fluctuations and changes (bending, twisting, breathing, and so on), its intrinsic mechanical properties inevitably influence fundamental biological processes such as genome packaging, repair, recombination, and editing. My experimental biophysics lab studies the mechanics of DNA at the single base pair level, which is linked to biologically important structures and processes. In this talk, I will discuss some of our recent studies that shed unprecedented light on DNA mechanics: measuring the exchange rates of single bases during DNA strand displacement, measuring the asymmetric bendability of single base-pair steps, and detecting the poloidal orientation of DNA minicircles. If time permits, I will also talk about our novel single-molecule force tool based on small DNA loops, which we recently used to study the annealing and melting kinetics of short DNA duplexes under piconewtons of tension.
Speaker: Professor Harold Kim / School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
Lecture: 2023-06-19 16:00~18:00
Dinner: 2023-06-19 18:00~20:00
