Unraveling Biological Interactions by Probing Single-Events

Biological systems exhibit intrinsic heterogeneity due to subpopulation kinetics, non-correlated temporal behavior and complex dynamics. Studying single biological events unravels the fascinating subtleness of biological phenomena, which is unattainable in ensemble averaging. This is accomplished by using novel optical microscopy and fluorescence techniques to probe individual proteins, complexes, viruses or cells in real time and with superior accuracy.

I will address fundamental questions regarding biological interactions:
What interaction determines the stability and specificity of protein-DNA complexes?
How does a virus find its target receptor on the host cell?

I will also discuss the development of new tools for probing single-events in cells: fast and versatile super-resolution imaging and multi-photon microscopy.