One of the main aims of our lab is to study the secondary and tertiary structure of DNA at nanometre resolution using Atomic Force Microscopy. AFM can visualise the structure of DNA down to resolution of the major and minor grooves of the double helix, and can detect subtle changes in the conformation of canonical DNA which is induced by factors such as supercoiling or protein binding. This allows us to study effects such as defect formation due to superhelical stress or DNA-damaging agents, and the formation of secondary structures (such as G-quadruplexes). Our high-resolution imaging also enables us to use our image analysis pipeline to trace DNA structures such as replication intermediates and kinetoplast DNA to answer underlying biological questions.
This cluster is led by Dr. Thomas Catley, please get in contact if you would like to know more.