Being praised for the mere fact of enabling the detection of individual fluorophores a dozen years ago, single-molecule techniques nowadays represent standard methods for the elucidation of the structural rearrangements of biologically relevant macromolecules. Single-molecule-sensitive techniques, such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, allow real-time access to a multitude of molecular ...

We present a Parrondo’s paradox for free energy in a classical flashing ratchet model and use it as an alternative way to interpret the working mechanism of molecular motors. We also study the efficiency of molecular motors measured by their free energies. Our example demonstrates that a molecular motor can gain up to 20% in its free energy during the process. In addition, we report a noise ind...

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) occurs when the distance between a donor fluorophore and an acceptor is within 10 nm, and its application often necessitates fluorescent labeling of biological targets. However, covalent modification of biomolecules can inadvertently give rise to conformational and/or functional changes. This review describes the application of intrinsic protein fluoresc...

DNA molecules have been utilized both as powerful synthetic building blocks to create nanoscale architectures and as inconstant programmable templates for assembly of biosensors. In this paper, a versatile, scalable and multiplex detection system is reported based on an extending fluorescent resonance energy transfer (FRET) cascades on a linear DNA assemblies. Seven combinations of three kinds ...

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), in most applications used as a "spectroscopic ruler," allows an easy determination of the donor-acceptor intermolecular distance. However, the situation becomes complex in membranes, since around each donor there is an ensemble of acceptors at non-correlated distances. In this review, state-of-the-art methodologies for this situation are presented, usua...

We present here the phasor approach to biosensor Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) detection by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and show that this method of data representation is robust towards biosensor design as well as the fluorescence artifacts inherent to the cellular environment. We demonstrate this property on a series of dual and single chain biosensors, which re...

Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) measured with Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) is a powerful technique to investigate spatio-temporal regulation of protein-protein interactions in living cells. When using standard fitting methods to analyze time domain FLIM, the correct estimation of the FRET parameters requires a high number of photons and therefore long acquisition tim...

In this report, to tackle the thermal fluorescent quenching issue of II-VI semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), which hinders their on-chip packaging application to light-emitting diodes (LEDs), a QD-ZnS nanosheet inorganic assembly monolith (QD-ZnS NIAM) is developed through chemisorption of QDs on the surface of two-dimensional (2D) ZnS nanosheets and subsequent assembly of the nanosheets into a...

The motor protein Kinesin-1 drives intracellular transport along microtubules, with each of its two motor domains taking 16-nm steps in a hand-over-hand fashion. The way in which a single-motor domain moves during a step is unknown. Here, we use Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) between fluorescent labels on both motor domains of a single kinesin. This approach allows us to resolve the r...

The complex formed by the hairpin ribozyme and its substrate consists of two independently folding domains which interact to form a catalytic structure. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer methods permit us to study reversible transitions of the complex between open and closed forms. Results indicate that docking of the domains is required for both the cleavage and ligation reactions. Dockin...