Awarded in 2011
Home Department: Applied Physics
Faculty Advisors: Zev Bryant (Bioengineering) and Hideo Mabuchi (Applied Physics)

Research Title: Highspeed multimodal microscopy for studying structural dynamics of molecular motors

Research Description: Paul’s goal is to further our mechanistic understanding of both DNA and molecular motors by capturing the motion of single molecules at unprecedented speed and resolution. He has developed an imaging and data acquisition system to track gold nanoparticles as precise probes of length and twist of single DNA molecules at upwards of 20,000 frames per second. The lab he works in exploits the resolution of this technique as a tool to study various systems. They observe individual torque-generating steps ATP-powered enzymes as they wind up DNA, and they measure the basic physical properties of DNA itself when single bases are unwound with tension and torque.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Paul is a staff R&D engineer at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.