Single molecule fluorescence studies of biomolecular interactions

Single molecule fluorescent techniques have become standard approaches to study protein-DNA interactions. However, these techniques have largely been confined by limitations in assays to studying the interaction between simple DNA substrates and a single protein. During my PhD I developed several novel assays to study a long-standing controversial biophysics question (flexibility of short dsDNA), genome packaging in viruses (Influenza and T4) and dynamics of challenging protein complexes (membrane proteins). The classical view of DNA posits that DNA must be stiff below the persistence length (