Research

To accomplish our goal of understanding the world around us one molecule at a time, the Biteen Lab pursues three closely integrated research thrusts.
Jump to See Some Recorded Research Presentations from the Lab Below

(1) Answering fundamental questions about microbial cell biology with single-molecule and super-resolution imaging inside living cells.

Recent Representative Publications

  • S. Biswas, et al., “Mapping biochemical states associated with HP1 target recognition at sites of heterochromatin formation in living cells,” Science Advances, 8, eabk0793 (2022). DOI
  • N. Al-Husini, et al., “BR-bodies provide selectively permeable condensates that stimulate mRNA decay and prevent release of decay intermediates,” Molecular Cell, 78 670-682 (2020). DOI
  • H.H. Tuson, M.H. Foley, N.M. Koropatkin* and J.S. Biteen*, “The Starch Utilization System Assembles around Stationary Starch-Binding Proteins,” Biophysical Journal 114 242-250 (2018). DOI

(2) Understanding the light-matter interactions that govern plasmon-coupled fluorescence with single-molecule and single-particle spectroscopy of dye/nanoparticle systems.

Recent Representative Publications

  • S. Chattopadhyay and J.S. Biteen, “Super-resolution characterization of heterogeneous light-matter interactions between single dye molecules and plasmonic nanoparticles,” Analytical Chemistry 93, 430-444 (2021). DOI
  • S.A. Lee and J.S. Biteen, “Spectral Reshaping of Single Dye Molecules Coupled to Single Plasmonic Nanoparticles,” Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 10 5764-5769 (2019). DOI
  • T. Zuo, H.J. Goldwyn, B.P. Isaacoff, D.J. Masiello* and J.S. Biteen*, “Rotation of Single-Molecule Emission Polarization by Plasmonic Nanorods,” Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 10 5047-5054 (2019). DOI.

(3) Pioneering new methods to extend the scope of single-molecule imaging to fast, directional, and confined movements in microbiology and nanotechnology.

Recent Representative Publications

  • Z. Chen, L. Geffroy, and J.S. Biteen, “NOBIAS: Analyzing anomalous diffusion in single-molecule tracks with nonparametric Bayesian inference,” Frontiers in Bioinformatics 1:742073 (2021). DOI; Accompanying code on Github.
  • J.D. Karslake, E.D. Donarski, S.A. Shelby, L.M. Demey, V.J. DiRita, S.L. Veatch and J.S. Biteen, “SMAUG: Analyzing single-molecule tracks with nonparametric Bayesian statistics,” Methods 193 16-26 (2021). DOI; Accompanying code on Github.
  • B.P. Isaacoff, Y. Li, S.A. Lee and J.S. Biteen, “SMALL-LABS: An algorithm for measuring single-molecule intensity and position in the presence of obscuring backgrounds,” Biophysical Journal, 116 975-982 (2019). DOI; Accompanying code on Github.

Some recent research talks from our lab:

August 2021, Prof. Biteen’s overview of the lab’s research at Ph.D. student orientation

January 2021, Presenting a virtual Biological Physics/Physical Biology seminar

March 2019, Julie at the National Academies Workshop on Single-Cell and Single-Molecule Analysis Tools

August 2020, Ziyuan’s talk on “Single-Molecule Tracking Reveals Multi-State Dynamics in Vivo”

August 2020, Zechariah’s talk on “Super-Resolving Plasmon-Enhanced Emission and Polarization”