Research

Overall, I am interested in how protein structural dynamics are related to their function. The techniques I use to obtain this information are (single-molecule) fluorescence microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and optical tweezers.

More in particular, my students and me are working on the following projects:

• How are conformational changes in the motor protein kinesin coupled to its processive motion?
• How do kinesins and other microtubule-associated proteins bring about their cellular tasks in mitosis and intracellular transport?
• How do DNA-processing proteins (like recombinases, restriction enzymes and polymerases) process DNA?
• Is it possible to combine optical tweezers and single-molecule fluorescence?
• How can we observe single biomolecules in cells and multicellular organisms?
• How can we improve the sensitivity, resolution, imaging depth and functionality of current microscopy methods?

My research is funded by a grants from NWO and ERC.