21-May-2009, Chemical Physics Seminars, Tel Aviv University <br>
<b>Single-Molecule-Based Approaches for Probing Biochemical Reactions:
From Protein-DNA specificity to Virus-Host Interactions.</b><br>
Dr. Eli Rothenberg,<br> Department of Physics of Living cells, University of Illinois - Urbana, Urbana,IL, USA<br>
<br>
<i>Abstract:</i><br>
<HR>


Single-molecule (sm) microscopy and spectroscopy are powerful techniques that allow probing of specific features of biomolecules and biochemical reactions that are otherwise masked in ensemble measurements. 
In my talk I will introduce the concept of single-molecule-based approaches and the ways they can be used to study biological systems, both in-vitro and in-vivo.
First, I will describe our in-vitro FRET-based single-molecule studies of a DNA-metabolism enzyme, the MCM helicase and its DNA substrate specificity.
Next, I will discuss ongoing efforts for studying virus-host interactions in live cells, where single-molecule-based approaches have enabled us to accurately probe the virus-host target-finding process of Lambda-Phage on E. coli in real time.