Our group uses single-molecule optical microscopy to study fundamental interactions between proteins and nucleic acids, and our overarching goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms that cells use to repair, maintain, and decode their genetic information. Our research combines aspects of biochemistry, physics, and nanoscale technology to answer questions about complex biological problems that cannot easily be addressed through more traditional biochemical or genetic approaches. The advantages of the technologies developed in our group are that we can see what proteins are bound to DNA, where they are bound, how they move, and how they interact with and influence partner proteins – all in real-time, at the level of a single reaction.