The links between Physics and Molecular Biology were formerly understood in terms of the development of experimental techniques to image and understand molecular structures. With the advent of the single-molecule techniques, Physics have found a laboratory for complex phenomena at the molecular level inside the cell. From this viewpoint, our cells are microfactories made up of molecular nanomachines (proteins) coordinated, precise and with highly specialized tasks. The software and the transmission of information are determined by the nucleic acids. Force and torque, stress and strain or work are examples of mechanical, albeit stochastic, actions which are intimately linked to chemical reactions in the cell.

In this seminar we will first analyze the nanotools that we have already developed and those that are currently in progress. These techniques are thought to manipulate, both in vitro and in vivo, biomolecular ‘particles’ by means of electromagnetic fields (optical tweezers and magnetic manipulation). In a second part, we will focus on the specific biophysical research lines of our laboratory, which have to do with three fundamental scale levels in Biology, namely, the levels of the molecule, the organelle and the cell. We will present our work in structural transitions of nucleic acids, molecular motors and electrophysiology of organelles.


Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 11:45. Seminar Room

Hosted by Prof. Melike Lakadamyali