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Andrea Markelz

Moti Lal Rustgi Professor of Physics
University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

Protein dynamics, spectroscopy, terahertz light, optical properties of materials, nonlinear optics

Head shot of Andrea Markelz, University at Buffalo protein dynamics expert.

Andrea Markelz is an expert on proteins’ structural dynamics, which refers to the way proteins vibrate, enabling them to carry out important biological functions. She has developed experimental and computational methods for studying these dynamics.

Markelz has unique expertise in using and creating instruments that employ terahertz light. She was one of the first researchers to demonstrate impact ionization in electronic materials using a terahertz free electron laser.

More recently, her team developed accessible techniques that use near-field terahertz microscopy to measure vibrations in proteins and other large macromolecules with terahertz light generated and detected by ultrafast lasers. Previously, such vibrations could only be measured using methods that required extremely dry and cold environments and expensive facilities.

The Markelz group uses the new tools the lab developed, along with protein crystallography and computer simulations, to investigate how protein vibrations may impact biology.

CONTACT:

Andrea Markelz, PhD
Moti Lal Rustgi Professor of Physics
University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences

NEWS ABOUT ANDREA MARKELZ