The Nan Laboratory

Our lab is interested in understanding the mechanisms of fundamental biological processes in bacteria. We have been studying protein dynamics in bacteria using super-resolution photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM). We have achieved 10-millisecond time resolution and 40-nm spatial resolution in live cells, which break the resolution barrier of the conventional fluorescence microscopy techniques. The research of the Nan lab covers a broad range of topics in bacterial physiology including motility, development (sporulation, germination and biofilm formation), cytoskeleton, cell wall assembly and interspecies competition.