Spotlight Detail
Michael Hall
Michael Hall, a graduate student in LASSP's Single Molecule Biophysics Lab, can actually "unzip" the two strands of a DNA molecule using a procedure called optical trapping. To do this, he focuses a laser on a micron-sized polystyrene bead. Light going through the bead changes direction, forcing the bead in the opposite direction. The result is that the bead remains in the center of the beam of light, trapped in the optical trap. Michael can attach these beads to tiny biological samples, such as the strands of DNA, with special chemical links. Michael's research focuses on the nucleosome, the eight proteins that wrap around and compact the DNA. Using optical trapping, he is measuring molecular forces to understand how the nucleosome regulates gene expression.
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