Single-molecule biophysics
Our lab combines molecular biology and biophysical techniques to understand mechanisms that underlie cellular organization and motility.
Eukaryotic cells are intricately organized on many length and time scales, from molecules to organelles. Much of this organization is achieved by motor proteins, which directionally transport intracellular components along cytoskeletal tracks.
The Yildiz Laboratory combines biochemical and single-molecule biophysical techniques to understand how motor proteins move on microtubules long distances at fast speeds and produce the forces required to carry their cargo in a dense cytoplasm. Despite decades of extensive research, our understanding of how these motors are recruited to specific cargoes and how they deliver the cargoes to their correct destinations remains incomplete. Owing to recent progress in biochemical reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy, we are now in a better position to model microtubule-based transport in vitro and start tackling these questions
Our lab is located in Stanley Hall at the University of California Berkeley.