The Molecular Plasmonics group at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands,
www.molecular-plasmonics.nl) has an open postdoc position on plasmon-enhanced single-molecule FRET.
BackgroundProteins and their interactions are the cornerstone of biological processes. The dynamic cooperation between multiple species is key to various processes including chaperone-mediated protein folding. The dynamics of these multi-molecular interactions is not easily captured because current single-molecule sensors (a) only work in dilute solutions or (b) only resolve a single species at a time. Capturing the dynamics of such multi-molecular interactions at physiological conditions therefore remains one of the grand challenges in the field. In our group we have developed plasmon sensors with single-molecule sensitivity. These sensors employ single-molecule plasmon-enhanced fluorescence, are compatible with high concentrations, and give access to short (millisecond) timescales due to strong plasmon-enhancement of the fluorescence.
Project descriptionThe candidate will expand the scope of plasmon-enhanced fluorescence sensors to detect multiple species and their interactions using plasmon-enhanced FRET. The candidate will push the limits of plasmon-enhanced FRET at the single-molecule level both experimentally and by numerical modelling. Together with a PhD student in the group this new class of sensor will be applied to study multi-protein interactions in the context of chaperone mediated protein folding. The position is for a duration of 3 years.