JILA Thesis Defense

Single molecule ligand binding kinetics and environmental adaptations in lysine riboswitches

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Abstract: Riboswitches are important RNA structures in bacteria and some eukaryotes that can bind a ligand to toggle between conformations that allow or terminate transcription, translation, or splicing. We study folding kinetics and thermodynamics in the B. subtilis and T. maritima lysine riboswitches via single molecule TIRF microscopy. We show that riboswitch folding is exothermic with a large entropic cost, which we attribute to increased binding pocket rigidity upon lysine binding.

Quantum many-body dynamics of atomic platforms for quantum simulation and metrology

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A key goal in modern quantum science is to harness the complex behavior of quantum systems to develop new technologies. While precisely engineered platforms featuring ultracold atoms and trapped ions have emerged as powerful tools for this task, the limited ability to theoretically probe these systems poses challenges for improved control and characterization. In this thesis, I focus on the development of new computational tools, utilizing tensor networks and phase space methods, for studying the far-from-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-body systems.

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