Eric C. Greene, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University and an Early Career Scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, will present the 2012/2013 Robert T. Simpson Memorial Lecture in Molecular Medicine at 4 p.m. Feb. 11, in 101 Althouse Laboratory. This free public lecture, titled "Visualizing Protein-DNA Interactions at the Single-molecule Level Using DNA Curtains," will focus on the molecular mechanisms that cells use to repair, maintain and decode their genetic information. The lecture is sponsored by the department of biochemistry and molecular biology.

Greene's laboratory has pioneered novel technologies for studying protein-DNA interactions at the single-molecule level. This work relies on a technique called total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, which Greene and his colleagues use to visualize proteins as they interact with specific sections of the DNA molecule. This technique allows Greene's lab to directly visualize on the order of 100 to 1,000 individual DNA molecules within a single field of view, along with any fluorescently tagged proteins that are bound to the DNA. This technology was developed specifically as a flexible experimental platform adaptable to the study of a wide range of protein nucleic-acid interactions.