Research

Dr. Mukhina’s lab is interested in how cells use mechanical energy to operate and regulate subcellular structures consisting of millions of molecules. These structures generate, transduce, and respond to mechanical forces and strains that originate at the individual molecules and scale up to microns. To access this information, the lab develops intracellular force nanoprobes with quantitative optical readout, in vivo force-generating apparatus, in situ mechano-molecular controls, and novel adaptations of super-resolution imaging to be used in a synergistic combination. They apply these tools to elucidate the biochemistry-agnostic mechanisms of a number of pathways where piconewton forces are thought to be important. The special focus is on the pathways that cells use to distribute regulatory information and orchestrate global transitions between different functional architectures of the genome, both physiological and pathological.

Research Area: Biophysics

Institute for Physical Science & Technology