We are a research group in the
Department of Chemistry at Clemson University. We use single-molecule force-applicaiton techniques—also known as "force spectroscopy"—to study the physical chemistry and biophysics of membrane proteins. We are looking for undergraduate and graduate researchers to join us; please
get in touch if you are interested.
News
- Congratulations to Abideen Ayangbemi, whose article on thermal calibration of AFM cantilevers has been published in Measurement Science and Technology. The article addresses the open question of whether it is more accurate to calibrate soft AFM cantilevers in air prior to using them in liquid-phase biological measurements. He finds that, under an optimized calibration procedure, it is fine to calibrate in liquid. [November 2026]
- Welcome William Hummel, a new Chemistry PhD student joining the group, and Aiden Ruggiero, a sophopmore biology major who began working with us this semester. [November 2026]
- Congratulations to Tommy Courtney, whose article on surface and cantilever functionalization has been published in ChemBioChem. These methods, based on aminopropyl silatrane, have greatly improved our lab's rate of achieving successful single-molecule experiments. [May 2026]
- David was honored to be asked to write a Viewpoint in Physics Magazine about recent work from the group of Hoi Sung Chung on measurements of protein-folding transition-path times in eight different protein species. Check out their work in Physical Review Letters. [March 2026]
- David's review article on single-molecule force studies of membrane proteins has been published in Chemical Reviews. Writing it was a fascinating opportunity to revisit work over the past 25 years from the groups of Müller, Gaub, Yoon, Min, Perkins, and others. Here's to the next 25 years of membrane-protein SMFS! [February 2026]