Developing single molecule technologies to understand complex biological phenomena

The focus of Dr Haldar’s lab is to develop single-molecule technologies to understand different complex biological phenomena. He joined Ashoka University in 2018 and established the first covalent magnetic tweezers in India. The supreme stability of the technology enables quantifying five molecular properties (unfolding kinetics, refolding kinetics, conformational change, chain flexibility, and ∆G for folding/unfolding) simultaneously, in a single experiment. Not only is the quantification of these properties, but it also measures the dynamic perturbations while introducing chemicals or biomolecules during the experiment. Notably, using this technology their group monitors all the perturbations in the same (single) molecule in real-time in a single experiment. Continuous tracking of five molecular properties – on the same and single globular protein – in various physical environments was not reported before.

(The writer is an Associate Professor of Biology and Chemistry at Ashoka University)