Agenda:
1:30 p.m. Join us for afternoon tea with delightful snacks
2:00 p.m. Brief introduction by Marek Piliarik
2:05 p.m. Lecture by Prof. Andreas Dahlin (Chalmers University of Technology) – Novel Confinement Methods for Single Molecule Studies. (The lecture will be held in English.)
Introduction to the lecture:
The possibility to detect and analyze single biological molecules is of great interest to advance molecular biology. Several methods enable detection of induvial molecules as well as their conformations and interactions, sometimes even in a label-free manner. However, the observation time tends to be limited to ~1 ms since the molecules diffuse away from the detection zone. Hence, there is a great need to confine the biomolecules, but without perturbing them and while maintaining a physiological environment. I will present a new trapping concept based on nanochambers with volumes as low as one attoliter. By introducing polymer brushes that switch between an extended and a collapsed state, efficient and long-term trapping of multiple proteins in the chambers is possible at physiological salt and pH. At the same time, small molecules and ions can access the trapped proteins through the hydrated brush barrier. Furthermore, in ongoing work we are extending the concept to dual-pore nanochambers, where electrokinetic forces are used to control the content of the nanochambers, aiming for single molecule precision.