Statistical analysis of biophysical data

Contacts:

Kirstine Berg-Sørensen, DTU Physics, 4525 3101 (kirstine.berg-sorensen@fysik.dtu.dk)

Left: E. coli bacteria glued to a coverslip, with a dielectric bead attached to a single protein. Part of the project involves data analysis on such beads, to extract physical parameters that describe the single protein. Right: Yeast cell of type S. pombe, with a lipid granulus (a “bead of fat”) inside the cell being trapped by optical tweezers. Another part of the project involves analysis of such data, to extract physical parameters that describe the medium inside the yeast cell.

Single molecule biophysics is a rapidly growing field of research, in which one – by different types of experiments – may measure single bio-molecules “in action”.  But the measured action of a single molecule is governed by the statistics of thermal distributions and most often also by experimental noise. Thus, in order to extract the physical information wanted, the tools of analysis must account for the underlying statistics.

One type of signal measured is a time-series which may be analysed through either the properties of a distribution of particular events, through the power spectra or through a correlation function.

In this project, you will learn about these types of analyses in “learning by doing”. We will analyze data obtained with optical tweezers and possibly also with other techniques. Thus, you will also become familiar with the principles of the relevant biophysical experimental techniques.