The Biomolecular spectroscopy & dynamics Cluster (BioC) - Research

Members of the BioC cluster have complementary strengths in areas on the border between biology, physics, and materials science. Ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy gives unique insights in delocalised modes in biomolecules. This is complemented by modern multidimensional NMR, which has a very high degree of atomistic structural detail, and fluorescence microscopy, which has the unique ability to analyse complex biomolecular dynamics. Chiral plasmonics is uniquely sensitive to three-dimensional structures of molecules and mesoscopic structures. All of these techniques have potential to lead to impact in the areas of sensors, synthetic biology, and innovative manufacturing.

Here are a few examples of our work:

Sound-like bubbles whizzing around in DNA are essential to life (2016)
The role of liquid-liquid demixing in crystallisation: icy fluff balls (2015)
Chiral plasmonics nanomaterials (2014)
Proteins ring like bells: ultrafast spectroscopy studies of proteins (2014)
Fingerprinting meningitis with lasers (BBC website, 2014)

1 June 2016: Our paper Observation of coherent delocalised phonon-like modes in DNA under physiological conditions was published to day in Nature Communications. See also Sound-like bubbles whizzing around in DNA are essential to life and a similar Glasgow University press release.
June 2014: Our paper "Terahertz underdamped vibrational motion governs protein-ligand binding in solution" came out in Nature Communications. The University published a news item Proteins ‘ring like bells’, which was taken up by Science Daily and a bunch of other news outlets. Strangely, it was also picked up by a creationist website who thought it was proof of design. The best write up was on an Austrina site Späte Bestätigung für Erwin Schrödinger? For the paper itself see here.

Also visit the web sites of the Dynamics & Structure grouping in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow