Walter Reisner
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
Associate Member
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Dr.Reisner's lab is interested in the basic science of nanoconfined polymers and applications of nanofluidic technology to biological analysis. We study DNA confined in nanoscale geometries, to better understand both the physics of polymers and of life at its smallest scales. The key theme of our work is the development and use of nanofabrication technology as a tool for single molecule manipulation and control. From a basic science point-of-view, these fabrication techniques allow us to address in a systematic and quantitative manner a number of questions with implications for diverse fields including polymer physics, nanoscience and biology:
-How do polymers behave in nanoscale enviornments?
-Can we read-out the information contained in the genome and epigenome on a single-molecule, single-cell basis?
-Can nanoconfined systems serve as a model for polymer confinement in biology?