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Protein Folding

Protein Folding

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Optical Tweezers to Study RNA-Protein Interactions in Translation Regulation

Optical Tweezers to Study RNA-Protein Interactions in Translation Regulation

Published on: February 12, 2022

Single-Molecule Protein Folding Experiments Using High-Precision Optical Tweezers.

Junyi Jiao¹, Aleksander A Rebane¹, Lu Ma²

¹Department of Cell Biology, School of Medicine and Integrated Graduate Program in Physical and Engineering Biology, Yale University, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA.

Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton, N.J.)

|November 16, 2016

Summary

Optical tweezers enable single-molecule studies of protein folding dynamics. This method reveals protein conformations, energies, and folding kinetics by analyzing force-induced unfolding and spontaneous refolding.

Keywords:

Energy landscape Hidden Markov modeling Optical tweezers Protein folding SNARE assembly SNARE proteins Single-molecule manipulation gp41

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Last Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Optical Tweezers to Study RNA-Protein Interactions in Translation Regulation

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Published on: February 12, 2022

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Published on: August 20, 2014

Monitoring Conformational Dynamics of Single Unmodified Proteins using Plasmonic Nanotweezers

Monitoring Conformational Dynamics of Single Unmodified Proteins using Plasmonic Nanotweezers

Published on: March 21, 2025

Area of Science:

Biophysics
Molecular Biology
Biochemistry

Background:

Protein folding is a fundamental biological process.
Understanding protein structure is crucial for biological function.
Single-molecule techniques offer high resolution for studying these processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To provide strategies and protocols for studying protein folding using optical tweezers.
To detail methods for sample preparation, conjugation, and data analysis.
To enable extraction of folding energies and rates from single-molecule measurements.

Main Methods:

Utilizing high-resolution optical tweezers (OT) for single-molecule manipulation.
Tethering single proteins or protein complexes between two beads in optical traps.
Applying mechanical force to induce unfolding and observing spontaneous refolding.
Monitoring protein extension changes to derive folding parameters.

Main Results:

Demonstrated the capability of optical tweezers to probe protein folding at the single-molecule level.
Established methods for preparing and manipulating protein samples.
Developed data analysis techniques to extract key thermodynamic and kinetic folding information.

Conclusions:

Optical tweezers are a powerful tool for investigating protein folding mechanisms.
The provided protocols facilitate detailed studies of protein and protein complex folding.
This approach yields insights into folding intermediates, energies, and kinetics.