Lipid membranes are much more than barriers between cell compartments, they are integral components of the cell involved in key functions such as signaling, transport, and sensing. Membranes are composed of hundreds of different lipid species and contain thousands of proteins. The biophysical implications of membrane heterogeneity are not fully understood. Our group uses 2D IR spectroscopy to probe the local hydrogen-bond dynamics at the lipid-water interface. [more]

Proteins are the machinery of life ­and understanding their structure provides important clues about their mode of action. Since proteins are so important for biology and medicine, more than 100.000 protein structures have been determined experimentally and are available in databases. [more]

Sum frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG) is a valuable technique to study the molecular properties of surfaces. As a second-order technique, it is uniquely sensitive to the average organization of molecules at the surface. However, as most surfaces are spatially heterogeneous, it isn't easy to interpret the spectrum as a single domain. The development of SFG into microscopy has allowed a more detailed and accurate analysis of the spatio-spectro-temporal evolution of surface chemistry. The SFG microscope development will be presented, and compressive sensing and the application toward thin films will be used. [more]