Single Molecule Spectroscopy

Research in our lab focuses on the development and application of ultra-sensitive optical techniques for the detection and manipulation of single molecules. Representing the ultimate level of sensitivity in the analysis and control of matter, single molecule techniques have many advantages over conventional ensemble methods. The ability to interrogate a molecular population, molecule by molecule, can provide information on both the static disorder, or heterogeniety within the ensemble, at any instant in time and dynamic disorder in the population as well as individual molecules as the molecular state evolves in time. Furthermore single molecule measurements do not require the synchronisation of molecular populations, the subsequent dephasing and the statistical averaging associated that can mask rare and fast molecular processes using ensemble techniques.

We have implemented a number of novel techniques including defocused dipole imaging, near-TIRF and Fourier transform FCS, dispersed-fluorescence spectroscopy on customised laser microscopy platforms to investigate a diverse range of molecular systems including; protein-ligand interactions, DNA and protein folding dynamics, protein-protein interactions in yeast cells and quantum dot photoactivation, blinking and bluing.