The class is intended for students interested in interdisciplinary work, with a background in either Physics/Physical Chemistry, or Biochemistry/MCB.
The course will be highly interdisciplinary, and will take the student to the front line of Single-Molecule research.

Graded coursework includes two take-home midterms and one oral presention, all based on recent papers. Papers in the field of single-molecule research will be assigned considering the background and interest of each student. Click here for some examples that cover some physics-oriented and some more biochemistry-oriented papers.

TENTATIVE PROGRAM

Week 1.
- Introduction to single molecule methods - basic ideas and examples. Historical development, timeline and landmarks. Background concepts for fluorescence/force measurements and data analysis.
Week 2.
-Introduction to stochastic processes. Bernoulli and Poisson processes. Interpretation of the unimolecular rate constant at the single-molecule level.
Week 3.
- Different observation modes for single molecule/small ensemble fluorescence measurements - confocal, wide field, near field, total internal reflection. Methods for studying diffusing and immobilized molecules.
Week 4.
- Applications in biophysics: Energy transfer applied to the study of DNA-RNA structures. Discussion of papers.
Week 5.
- Applications in biophysics: polarization studies on the ATPase/ATP synthase system. Discussion of papers.
Week 6.
Discussion of recent papers in the field: oral presentations by students.
Week 7.
Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy. Autocorrelation and Crosscorrelation functions.
Week 8.
- Single-molecule manipulation methods. Introduction to AFM, optical tweezers, and magnetic tweezers.
Week 9.
Atomic Force Microscopy. Scanning and pulling, force vs. extension curves.
Week 10.
Discussion of recent papers in the field: oral presentations by students.
Week 11.
Laser Tweezers and AFM: Mechanical properties of polymers. The worm-like chain model. Elasticity of DNA. Determination of thermodynamic properties ( G, S, H) at the single molecule level.
Week 12.
Laser Tweezers: Reversible vs Irreversible trajectories. The Jarzynski equality. Applications to the study of RNA structures.
Week 13.
Magnetic Tweezers. Instrumentation and applications. Force-Fluorescence combined methods.
Weeks 14-15.
Discussion of recent papers in the field: oral presentations by students.