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What is a Physicist Doing Studying Biology?

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Physics Department
Location
141 Loomis Laboratory
Date
Dec 7, 2019   10:15 am  
Speaker
Prof. Paul Selvin
Cost
Free
Contact
Patrick J Snyder
E-Mail
psnyder@illinois.edu
Views
119
Originating Calendar
Physics - Saturday Physics for Everyone

For those that missed it, you can see the recorded talk here: https://youtu.be/cRIlGRFzSik

The invention of the optical microscope 500 years ago allowed scientists to see objects smaller than a hair’s width—or, in scientific jargon, about 250 nanometers—but no smaller because of the laws of optics; this limit is called the diffraction limit. Only recently have scientists developed a way to "break" the diffraction limit and "see" even smaller objects. My lab has applied and tested this technique on two biological puzzles with tremendous clinical possibilities:

1) Each cell in your body is like a little city that has cars and trucks moving proteins around. In this talk I’ll describe how these "cargo trucks" (motor proteins) move— is it by walking, sliding, or some other motion?

2) We’ve also applied this technique to more deeply understand communication among nerve cells and the processes involved when humans think, remember, and forget. Being able to see little "memory proteins" move into place at the nanometer scale is critical for making progress on devastating diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.

What is a Physicist Doing Studying Biology?

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