The complex organization of the transcription machinery has been revealed mainly by biochemical and crystallographic studies. X-ray structures describe RNA polymerases and transcription complexes on an atomic level, but fail to portray their dynamic nature. The use of fluorescence techniques has made it possible to add a new layer of information to our understanding of transcription by providin...

Single-molecule studies can be used to study biological processes directly and in real-time. In particular, the fluorescence energy transfer between reporter dye molecules attached to specific sites on macromolecular complexes can be used to infer distance information. When several measurements are combined, the information can be used to determine the position and conformation of certain domai...

Cameleons are genetically encoded fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based Ca(2+) indicators. Attempts to use cameleons to detect neural activity in vertebrate systems have been largely frustrated by the small FRET signal, in contradistinction to the higher signals seen in Drosophila and Caenorhabditis elegans. We have developed a statistical optimization method capable of detecting ...

Tunable emission of binary organic nanobelts was realized via the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) process, which can be exploited for the detection of acid and basic chemical vapors.

Single molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer has been extensively used to measure distance changes and kinetics in various biomolecular systems. However, due to complications involving multiple de-excitation pathways of the dyes, the absolute inter-dye distance information has seldom been recovered. To circumvent this we directly probe the relative variations in the quantum yield of i...

Here we describe the metathesis reactions of a strained eight-membered ring that contains both alkene and alkyne functionality. We find that the alkyne metathesis catalyst produces polymer through a ring-opening alkyne metathesis reaction that is driven by the strain release from the monomer. The strained monomer provides unusual reactivity with ruthenium-based alkene metathesis catalysts. We i...

Dewar, J. M. Pillinger, S. Sheridan, I. P. Wright, E. K. Gibson, J. A. Merrifield, C. J. Howe, L. J. Waugh and C. T. Pillinger, Planetary & Space Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes. MK7 6AA UK. ([email protected]), Astromaterials Research Office, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA, Fluid Gravity Engineering, 1 West Street, Emsworth, PO10 7DX, UK, RAL Spa...

Photonic wires were constructed by sequentially arranging up to 7 fluorophores along a concatenated DNA scaffold. This yielded nanostructures displaying from one- to six-energy transfer steps where end-to-end efficiency reflected the multiple underlying photophysical processes and the ability of long-range interactions to compensate for localized non-ideal dye behaviour.

Graphene oxide can act as an ultrahighly efficient quencher for upconversion nanophosphors and thus, an extraordinarily sensitive biosensing platform is constructed.

We successfully prepared organic core/diffuse-shell nanorods, which presents fluorescence resonance energy transfer from the core to shell components.