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Single Molecule Imaging of Molecular Machines
Molecular machines are a promising class of molecules that are designed to exhibit controlled mechanical motions.
In contrast to breaking macroscopic objects into smaller pieces to form functional materials, nanoscale science is driven
by a bottom-up synthesis approach. Inspiration for this strategy can be found in nature where self-assembly of smaller
molecules into larger networks plays a fundamental role. The possibility of performing mechanical operations with specifically
designed molecules presents the ultimate limit of miniaturization with profound impact on many diverse fields. Using single molecule fluorescence imaging, we are investigating the translational motion of molecular machines, which resemble
the chassis and wheels of a car. These organic molecules are called nanocars, which have been designed and synthesized in the Tour Lab.
Our goal is to obtain a molecular level understanding about the mechanisms how molecular machines function in order to improve the
engineering of such machines. In particular, we apply optical single molecule imaging to measure the directed motion of nanocars on a micrometer length scale. This project is pursued in collaboration with theoretical modeling carried out in the Kolomeisky Lab.
The figure above shows the chemical structure of a nanocar tagged with the dye TRITC (left) and a time series of magnified fluorescence images showing the movement of a single nanocar (right). By recording fluorescence images as a function of time we obtain single nanocar trajectories, which are used to quantify the nanocar motion on different surfaces. Movies constructed from sequential images for TRITC-tagged nanocars (left) and TRITC only (right) are shown below (30x actual speed). While the nanocars move on a glass substrate at room temperature, the TRITC molecules remain stationary. The tracking program developed to analyze the nanocar movement can be downloaded below.
Download Tracking Program SMS_Tracker_pkg - Installer for the standalone application MCRInstaller - Matlab Runtime (required for .exe file). Unfortunately we cannot host this file, however you can download it from CellTracker. Manual & Documentation (PDF)
Installation:
Group members involved:
Publications:
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