The goal of my research work is to study molecular motor regulation. A small set of molecular motor proteins move hundreds of different cargos at different times and to different places inside the living cell. To achieve that complexity, motor function needs to be tightly regulated by other proteins. I study motor regulation at the single molecule level by optimizing a novel instrument that combines single molecule fluorescence, optical trapping and bright field microscopy. This enables me to observe the binding of individual regulatory proteins to the motor complex and to study the functional change of the motor as it moves cargos.
Graduate Research Assistant
Fall 2012 – present: Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, Department of Physics
Teaching Assistant
Fall 2011 – Summer 2012: Classical Physics I and II, an introductory undergraduate course for mechanics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics and electrodynamics
Ph.D. Candidate
The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 – present
B.Sc. in Physics (with distinction)
University of Würzburg (Germany), 2012
DAAD fellowship (2012 – present)
Deutschlandstipendium scholarship (2011 – 2012)