Internal friction, which reflects the “roughness” of the energy landscape, plays an important
role for proteins by modulating the dynamics of their folding and other conformational …

Abstract Theory, simulations and experimental results have suggested an important role of
internal friction in the kinetics of protein folding. Recent experiments on spectrin domains …

Molecular chaperones are known to be essential for avoiding protein aggregation in vivo,
but it is still unclear how they affect protein folding mechanisms. We use single-molecule …

Microfluidic mixing in combination with single-molecule spectroscopy allows the investigation
of complex biomolecular processes under non-equilibrium conditions. Here we present a …

This article describes the design and fabrication of a microfluidic mixing system optimized for
ultrasensitive optical measurements. Channels are replica-molded in polydimethylsiloxane …

According to the traditional view, GTPases act as molecular switches, which cycle between
distinct ‘on’ and ‘off’ conformations bound to GTP and GDP, respectively. Translation …

DNA can fold into G-quadruplexes (GQs), non-canonical secondary structures formed by π-π
stacking of G-tetrads. GQs are important in many biological processes, which makes them …

In single molecule fluorescence studies, background emission from labeled substrates often
restricts their concentrations to non-physiological nanomolar values. One approach to …

The folding of larger proteins generally differs from the folding of similarly large nucleic
acids in the number and stability of the intermediates involved. To date, however, no similar …

Optical encoders are commonly used in macroscopic machines to make precise measurements
of distance and velocity by translating motion into a periodic signal. Here we show how …