Touching when you can't see: technologies for manipulating biology at the nanoscale

Synopsis

Following an introduction to relevant length scales of biological systems, I’ll talk about the nanoscale world of proteins, which function as Nature’s structural building blocks and mechanical devices.  Our group has been investigating the mechanics of a key structural protein, collagen.  I’ll focus on its flexibility and its stress response, why these properties are important and contentious, and how we have resolved some of the discrepancies in the literature.  I’ll also describe our latest instrument, the mini-radio centrifuge force microscope (MR.CFM), which we have used for high-throughput investigations of collagen’s response to force.