Name: Barak Gilboa                                                                                               
     
Advisors: Oleg Krichevsky & Anne Bernheim (Chemical Engineering Dept.) 
      Status: started the Joined PhD track

       Short CV
   

      Phone: 08-64(79507)
      Room: 59/341
      Mail: Barakgil@bgu.ac.il
     
Group's Site: Anne Bernheim's Group 

     
PhD Thesis Title: Design, setup and characterization of optical tweezers for The Study of Force Induced Actin Polymerization
                                  by Formin and Cooperative Molecular Motors

       Thesis summary:

       My master's work focused on designing, setting up and characterising an optical tweezers system for single molecule experiments.

       the system consists of 2 lasers, one for trapping and one for imaging, which are coupled to a microscope

       by an Optical train. imaging is achieved either by Flourescence/bright field microscopy using a cooled CCD device, and

       by imaging the trapped object (usually a polysterene or silica bead) onto a Quadrant Photo Diode (QPD).

       This system will be used to study 2 poorly understood biophysical phenomena: The first is the protein formin ability to

       nucleate barbed end polymerization and keeping attached to the barbed end while it continues to polymerize. The second

       is the cooperative behaviour of large groups of molecular motors (myosin II) working on the same track (actin) under the

       influence of external force.