Laura J. Kaufman
Research Interest
Summary
The Kaufman group supports a diverse and continually evolving program of research in frontier areas at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and biology. Thematically, our core interests are in the study of unusual dynamics of crowded and complex systems, and technically our research is driven by high resolution imaging and its integration with complementary approaches. Recent work is centered in two long-standing research thrusts in the laboratory as well as in a developing area of interest. In particular, we (1) use single molecule imaging to detail the characteristics and origin of atypical relaxations in molecular and polymeric supercooled liquids, (2) apply super-resolution and other single particle techniques to elucidate structure-function relationships in conjugated polymers, paving the way to fine control of their photophysics, and (3) exploit tools for biopolymer gel design and characterization developed in our laboratory to investigate modes of cancer cell motility that are relevant in vivo.
A.J. Devanny, M.B. Vancura, and L.J. Kaufman. Exploiting differential effects of actomyosin contractility to control cell sorting among breast cancer cells, Mol. Bio. Cell, (2021).
H.J. Kim, Y. Kwon, H. Yang, A.J. Devanny, and L.J. Kaufman. Spatial and spectral super-resolution imaging for characterizing multichromophoric systems, J. Phys. Chem. C, 124, 25568-25577 (2020).
Guzman, R. Avard, A.J. Devanny, O.S. Kweon, and L.J. Kaufman. Delineating the role of membrane blebs in a hybrid mode of cancer-cell invasion in three-dimensional environments, J. Cell Sci. 133, jcs236778 (2020).
Y. Kwon and L.J. Kaufman. Nearly isotropic conjugated polymer aggregates with efficient local exciton diffusion, J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 29418-29426 (2019).
A.S. Manz, M. Aly, and L.J. Kaufman. Correlating fragility and heterogeneous dynamics in polystyrene through single molecule studies, J. Chem. Phys. 151, 084501 (2019).
M. Wei, L. Shi, Y. Shen, Z. Zhao, A. Guzman, L.J. Kaufman, L. Wei, and W. Min, Volumetric chemical imaging by clearing-enhanced stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 116, 6608-6617 (2019).
H. Park, Y.K. Kwon, and L.J. Kaufman, Complex photophysical behaviors affect single conjugated molecule optical anisotropy measurements, J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 1960-1965 (2019).
H. Kaur, S.D. Verma, K. Paeng, L.J. Kaufman, and M.A. Berg, Biphasic rate exchange in supercooled o-terphenyl from an ensemble analysis of single-molecule data, Phys. Rev. E. 98, 040603 (2018).
K. Paeng and L.J. Kaufman. Which probes can report intrinsic dynamic heterogeneity of a glass forming liquid? J. Chem. Phys. 149, 164501 (2018).
A.S. Manz, K. Paeng, and L.J. Kaufman. Single molecule studies reveal temperature independence of lifetime of dynamic heterogeneity in polystyrene, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 204508 (2018).
J. Yang, H. Park, and L.J. Kaufman. In-situ optical imaging of the growth of conjugated polymer aggregates, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 57, 1826-1830 (2018).
K.-H. Tran-Ba, D.J. Lee, J. Zhu, K. Paeng, and L.J. Kaufman. Confocal rheology probes structure and mechanics of collagen through the sol-gel transition, Biophys. J. 113, 1882-1892 (2017).
J. Yang, H. Park, and L.J. Kaufman. Highly anisotropic conjugated polymer aggregates: Preparation and quantification of physical and optical anisotropy, J. Phys. Chem. C. 121, 13854-13862 (2017).