The cell is a crowded environment where complex chemical reactions take place, typically involving only a few numbers of molecules. While a number of these reactions have been studied in bulk assays or even at the single molecule level, the role of crowded environment or confinement has typically not been investigated. The goal of this project is to study the dynamics of single molecules and molecular complexes under the influence of confinement. An apparatus will be developed to create nanotube extensions from vesicle by pulling on self-assembled vesicle membranes. The nanotube-vesicle structures can be made stable in the case where the membranes are formed by cross-linkable polymers. Single molecules, such as genomic length DNA, will be driven to enter the nanotube and the dynamics of the molecule will be studied by fluorescence microscopy.
Supervisor: Prof. Kris Helmerson
See https://www.monash.edu/science/schools/physics/honours/honours-project to apply.