Functional Imaging and Biophysics of Biological Systems

The research interests of Heikal group, here at Penn State, include (i) energy metabolism and mitochondria dysfunction, (ii) structure-function relationship in biomembranes, (iii) protein dynamics and protein-protein interactions, and (iv) development of new single-molecule techniques and image processing algorithms. The experimental approach used in Heikal group to achieve these research interests include multiscale, integrated biophotonics techniques such as fluorescence (confocal and two-photon) microscopy, fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCCS), two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM), and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET).