Single molecule biophysics of DNA

Isabel Bennett

Isabel was a PhD student with Alice and Professor Rachel McKendry at the London Centre for Nanotechnology, affiliated with i-sense, an EPSRC IRC in Early Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Diseases. Her PhD work centred on the use of Atomic Force Microscopy to study antimicrobial action and resistance in bacteria.

Isabel now works as Health Innovation and Policy Integration Lead for the UK Health Security Agency.

Kavit Main

Kavit was a PhD student supervised by Alice and Professor John Hartley at the UCL Cancer Institute. Kavit’s research was a biophysical investigation into the mechanics of DNA-topoisomerase interactions and topoisomerase inhibitor chemotherapy. His study aims to evaluate how DNA structure and mechanics influence topoisomerase activity and inhibitor pharmacology.

Eddie Rollins

Eddie was supervised by Alice and Dr Chris Toseland at the University of Sheffield. He used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to understand how topology, supercoiling and stress effects DNA interactions by observing local variations in the structure and dynamics of single molecules of DNA and associated proteins.

Mingxue Du

Mingxue Du was a PhD student with Dr Alice Pyne and Dr Robert Turner at the University of Sheffield. The aim of her research was to develop more automated processing, recognition and analysis methods for AFM images of DNA and other large biological molecules. She also combined AFM images with molecular dynamic simulations in order to provide a better understanding of DNA topology.