Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Current research: With a combination of novel single-molecule imaging approaches and traditional biochemical techniques I am investigating the mechanisms of ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers, a class of enzymes that dynamically alter chromatin structure.
I am intrigued by the notion that virtually all chemical reactions in our bodies are carried out by microscopic yet intricate molecular machines. For this reason, I decided to study the workings of these machines at a molecular level. John Kuriyan's laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley was the perfect place for this work. There I studied the allosteric control of protein kinases and developed a passion for correlating protein structure with function. For my postdoctoral research I decided to venture into another important area of biology and study dynamic aspects of chromatin remodeling enzyme mechanisms using single-molecule imaging techniques in Xiaowei Zhuang's laboratory at Harvard. Next to doing science, I enjoy windsurfing and surfing.