FIP Seminar: Real-Time 3D Single-Particle Tracking: Spectroscopy, Imaging, and Control

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Wed, 02/07/2018 - 12:00 to 13:00

Haw Yang

Presenter

Dr. Haw Yang, Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University

Real-time 3D single-particle tracking spectroscopy is an experimental technique that allows one to follow a nanoprobe as its moves in three-dimensional space, either by diffusion or by active locomotion. The technique keeps the nanoprobe at the center of the focus at all times by moving the sample stage to counter any movements that the probe exhibits. Effectively, the apparatus transforms the experimental coordinate from lab-based from to probe-based frame. This way, it would become possible to do time-dependent experiments on the probe or the molecule tethered to the probe as if the particle or molecules are immobilized. This presentation will discuss its principles, capabilities, and applications-including (1) 3D multi-resolution imaging of individual virus-like nano particles interacting with a live cell, (2) temperature-jump experiments for testing hot-Brownian theory, and (3) steering of self-propelled micro-swimmers and its implications in bacterial locomotion. The Haw Yang Lab works on problems in the general area of Biophysical Dynamics. On the more abstract level, we seek to understand the manner by which local fluctuations in a complex system may contribute to the system's function. Examples include how proteins exploit thermally driven conformational changes to achieve their functions, how living cells modulate their intra-cellular local temperature to remain viable, how v