We are a biophysics lab located in the Department of Biological Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. We use a variety of different biophysical tools to understand how cells perform the complicated mechanical tasks to keep us healthy. For example, in the movie below, we are pulling apart two microtubules (red and purple) that are crosslinked by an essential protein called PRC1 (green) that is needed for cell division. We can measure the resistance this protein generates when pulling at different speeds to understand how rates of chromosome segregation are regulated at the biophysical level.
