Affiliation: Professor, Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Department of Physics, University of Toronto
Website: www.utm.utoronto.ca/gradinaru-lab
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Research Summary: We are a single-molecule biophysics lab. We built ultrasensitive microscopes for single-molecule fluorescence imaging and spectroscopy, which provide a wide range of photon-level capabilities. Our applications are focused on two main directions. First, we integrate single-molecule fluorescence data with other structural data and molecular modelling to understand the determinants of “fuzzy structures” in biology and how intrinsically-disordered proteins (IDPs) interact with other molecules. Second, we measure nanometer-scale distances and nanosecond-to-second dynamics in G protein coupled-receptors (GPCRs), to define how/when/where they activate and oligomerize in the cell membrane and how their innate structural flexibility couples to quaternary organization and biased signaling.
