High-throughput single-molecule studies of protein-DNA interactions

Our main goal is to find efficient ways to understand the effect of DNA sequence on chemical reactions; the first such reaction to explore will be DNA transcription by RNA polymerase, a reaction that sits at the heart of gene regulation and one that is a proven target for antibiotics. Our work will enable unprecedented analysis of how proteins convert DNA information into motion and chemical events, and enable further extensions to RNA and protein sequence in the longer term. In the longer term, we will also identify key steps that can regulate biomolecular activity through new drugs, such as novel antibiotics. In the proposed work, we will exploit ultrasensitive detection of molecules, super-resolution imaging, nucleic acid chemistry, and image analysis.

These areas are closely related to many EPSRC themes and research areas, including analytical science, image and vision computing, chemical biology and biological chemistry, microsystems, biophysics, and optical devices and subsystems.