The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Rahul Roy, who earned his PhD in single molecule studies of nucleic-acid and protein interactions from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Rahul has joined the gene expression efforts of the Xie Lab. In his leisure time, Rahul enjoys nature hikes and sporting activities. (10/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Markus Rueckel, who earned his PhD in physics from the University of Heidelberg, although his work about adaptive optics on two-photon microscopy was carried out at the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in the lab of Winfried Denk. Markus joined the group to learn more about the biological applications of CARS microscopy. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, particularly tennis and mountain climbing. (10/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Kevin Wood, who earned his double PhD's in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Kevin worked primarily on stochastic models of nonequilibrium phase transitions. Now he is excited to learn experimental single-molecule techniques, and to "venture outside of my fairy-tale world of approximations." Kevin enjoys running marathons and triathlons with his much-faster wife. (9/07)

Congratulations to Gene-Wei Li for receiving an ACS student poster award for his work entitled "Probing Transcription Factor Dynamics at the Single Molecule Level in a Living Cell." A picture of this proud moment may be seen at http://hackberry.chem.trinity.edu/PHYS/PosterAwardWinnersF07.html (8/07)

The Xie Group is happy to welcome postdoctoral fellow Xiaojie Duan, who earned her PhD in the field of Nanochemistry from Peking University. Xiaojie has intense interest in single-molecule detection. She thinks that the Xie group provides both leading techniques and great insights in this area. In her spare time, Xiaojie enjoys playing badminton, pingpong, and skiing. (7/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Marcel G. Friedrich. Working with Professor W. Knoll at the Max Planck Institute in Mainz, Germany, Marcel earned his PhD in the field of bioelectrochemistry and vibrational spectroscopy of heme proteins. This past March, Marcel received the Young Investigator Award/Young Energeticist Award at the Biophysical Society meeting in Baltimore, MD. Now he is excited to begin work in the Xie Group with CARS microscopy and its applications to membrane proteins and living cells. Outside of the lab, Marcel maintains an active interest in the Japanese martial arts. (5/07)

The Xie Group is happy to officially welcome Srinjan Basu (G1), who rotated with the group this past fall. Srinjan is a joint graduate student with Professor Tom Maniatis in the Dept. of MCB. Having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (UK), Srinjan's interests lie in the dynamics of protein-DNA interactions. He felt the diversity of single-molecule techniques available in the Xie Group made it a great place to join. Srinjan enjoys painting and playing the piano in his spare time. (4/07)

Congratulations to Paul Blainey on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "Single-Molecule Studies of Protein-DNA Interaction: Diffusive Search and Sequence-Dependent Motors." Paul earned his PhD jointly with Professors Sunney Xie and Gregory Verdine. Dr. Blainey has now joined Professor Steve Quake's group at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow. (3/07)

Congratulations to Conor Evans on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "CARS Microscopy: Sensitive and Noninvasive Chemical Imaging for Biomedicine". His wonderful thesis committee comprised of Professors Jeff Lichtman (MCB), Antoine van Oijen (HMS), and Sunney Xie (CCB). Dr. Evans will remain with the Xie group as a Postdoc until the CARS Workshop in June. In July, Dr. Evans will join the Optical Diagnostics Research group at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital to work with Drs. Johannes de Boer, PhD, Gary Tearney, MD, and Brett Bouma, PhD. (3/07)

Congratulations to Professor Xie, who received the 2007 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics. The Lamb Award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the field. Professor Xie was recognized for his pioneering contributions to CARS microscopy, and was honored earlier this January at the Physics of Quantum Electronics Winter Colloquium in Snowbird, Utah . (1/07)

Congratulations to Xiaolin Nan on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "Probing Dynamic Processes in Living Cells with High Time Resolution, Spatial Precision, and Chemical Selectivity." His thesis committee included Professors Howard Berg (MCB), Timothy Mitchison (HMS), and Sunney Xie (CCB). Dr. Nan will remain with the Xie group until mid-March, when he joins the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Steven Chu's lab. (1/07)

The Xie Group is happy to welcome Dr. Gary Holtom, who joined the group this January as a Project Scientist. Gary brings his expertise in CARS microscopy from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he and Professor Xie were colleagues for several years. In addition to his interests within the lab, Gary is working toward his piloting license, and hopes soon to see New England from the air. (1/07)

The Xie Group now officially welcomes Christian Freudiger (G1), who joined the group in January after working a rotation here this past fall. Christian studied physics at the Technical University of Munich, and he considers the Xie Group to be the perfect place for a physicist interested in biological research. Christian also is an avid sportsman, enjoying free skiing, basketball, and beach volleyball. (1/07)

Congratulations to Dr. Charles Schroeder on receiving the NIH Pathway to Independence Award! This newly established award offers a new opportunity for promising postdoctoral scientists to receive both mentored and independent research support. Charles is one of the Harvard three postdocs to receive this award http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/K99_awards_fy2006.htm (12/06)

Congratulations to Paul Blainey (G6), whose image of a microchannel for flow-stretching DNA was chosen as a winner of the 2006 Nikon International Small World Competition. Paul's award-winning image can be seen as Mr. October in Nikon's Small World 2007 calendar. (9/06)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Dr. Yuichi Taniguchi who joins us from Yanigida Group at Osaka University. Dr. Taniguchi received his MD and PhD in Biophysics from Osaka University. He is interested in the developments of methodologies to understand individual cell dynamics at single molecule levels (9/06)

This August, the Xie Group was happy to welcome Jahan Habib as the new Laboratory Administrator. Jahan holds a bachelors degree from New York University and currently is working toward his master of arts degree in government here at Harvard. Although he generally keeps it quiet in this neck of the woods, Jahan admits to being loyal fan of the New York Mets. (8/06)

This Fall, Xie Group laboratory administrator Alex Berrio Matamoros begins his intellectual property focused studies at Boston College Law School . (7/06)

After four productive postdoctoral years with the Xie Group, Dr. Jie Xiao has begun her appointment as Assistant Professor of Biophysics & Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. (7/06)

The Xie Group bids a fond farewell to Dr. Silvia Carrasco, who leaves to assume the well-earned position of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) director for The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona, Spain. (7/06)

Congratulations to Dr. Martin Vogel on receiving the Löhn-Award from the Steinbeis Foundation in Germany! It recognizes Martin's technology transfer project as one of the "outstanding projects involving competitive technology and knowledge transfer between science and business." (7/06)

Xie Group G1 Brian Saar has done it again! His poster, "High Sensitivity coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Microscopy," won an Outstanding Poster Award at this year's Lasers in Medicine and Biology Gordon conference. (7/06)

This June, the Third Annual CARS Workshop at Harvard was a great success! 32 participants from 13 nations enjoyed an intense three days of CARS lectures and hands-on training. Thanks are due for everyone's hard work and late hours, particularly the CARS subgroup! (7/06)

Dr. Ji Yu has begun his well-earned appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Conducting research in the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling, Dr. Yu's group aims to develop new single molecule experiments to study processes in living cells. (7/06)

Welcome to Prof. Nils Walter, who joins the Xie Group for his sabbatical from the University of Michigan. (6/06)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Dr. Martin Vogel who joins us through a joint appointment with the Center for Nanoscale Systems. Dr. Vogel received his Diplom in physics and PhD in the Medical Biophysics group at the University of Heidelburg, Germany. Dr. Vogel joins the CARS subgroup where he hopes to utilize his background in muscle cell preparation to locate CARS sensitivity for protein imaging. (6/06)

Xie Group G1 Brian Saar has been awarded a 3 year National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship in chemistry, funded by the Army Office of Scientfic Research. Awarded by the Department of Defense, the NDSEG is a means of increasing the number of U.S. citizens and nationals trained in science and engineering disciplines of military importance. (5/06)

This May, postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nam Ki Lee joins the Xie Group. Dr. Lee prepared his PhD at Seoul National University conducting cell biology experiments using single-molecule techniques. We are excited to welcome Dr. Lee to the Single-Molecule subgroup. (5/06)

Congratulations to Kirsten Frieda '06, an undergraduate research assistant in the Xie Group, on winning the Edward Purcell Prize for her thesis entitled "One Permease is Not a Quorum: Probing Bistability in the lac operon at the Single Protein Level," a single-molecule analysis of the level of expression of LacY-venus. The Harvard Department of Physics, thanks to an anonymous donor, has established the Edward Purcell Prize in the amount of $2,000 to be given annually to a senior undergraduate who has carried out outstanding research at the interface of biology and physics. This is the first thesis coming out of Xie group that has won this award. Kudos to Kirsten, as well as graduate students Long Cai and Paul Choi, who helped her prepare her thesis. (4/06)

The Xie Group welcomes Huiyi Chen, our first molecular and cellular biology (MCB) graduate student. From Singapore, Huiyi joins us by way of Berkeley where she double majored in MCB and economics. As the latest addition to the CARS Microscopy subgroup, she will work with Dr. Wei Yuan Yang. (3/06)

The Xie Group is excited to welcome Yizhuo Chu to the fold. Chu earned her B.S. and Masters in physics at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She will conduct research on gene-expression, a field she is excited to explore because of its manifold recent developments. Chu describes her joining the Xie Group as "wonderful" and we heartily agree. (12/05)

Joining the Xie Group this December, Dr. Giuseppe Lia hails from Sersale, a small town in Calabria, a wild region in the south of Italy. Upon completing his baccalaureat studies in Literature in Calabria, Lia obtained his Masters in Science in molecular biology with Laura Finzi studying a DNA loop formation using single molecule techniques. Lia prepared his PhD in genetics in the David Bensimon group in the Ecole Normale Superieure, Statistical Physic Laboratory. As a member of the Xie Group, Lia plans on conducting single molecule experiments in living cells and monitoring the effect of the noise in gene expression. (12/05)

This December, G1 student Brian Saar joins the Xie Group to work on CARS microscopy and microspectroscopy. Saar earned his B.A. in chemistry from Williams College, where he studied the vibrational overtone spectra of hydrofluorocarbon molecules. "The range of expertise in the group makes it a great place to learn," he said, "but one of the best things about joining the CARS project is all the cool toys you get to play with." (12/05)

Congratulations to Professor Xie on being elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Professor Xie will be recognized for his contributions to science this February at the association's annual meeting in St. Louis, MO. (10/05)

This October, we're excited to welcome Dr. Andrei Tokmakoff as he joins the Xie Group during his sabbatical from MIT. (10/05)

Congratulations to Professor Xie on being named a Fellow of the Biophysical Society for his significant contributions to single-molecule biophysics and cellular imaging. Professor Xie will be recognized at the Biophysical Society Annual Awards Ceremony in Salt Lake City, Utah in February, 2006. (10/05)

Joining the Xie Group this September, Dr. Johan Elf holds a fellowship from the Swedish Wallenberg Foundation. Elf was born in the small town of Motala in southern Sweden and earned his Ph.D. in molecular biotechnology from Uppsala University. His previous work has mostly dealt with modeling intracellular kinetics related to bacterial protein synthesis or spatiotemporal fluctuations in cell signaling. Elf joins the Group to see if some of the modeling can be tested in real cells. (9/05)

Awarded a Fullbright Fellowship, Dr. Silvia Carrasco joins us this August from Boston University. Originally from Gijon, a small city in the north of Spain, Carrasco earned her Ph.D. in Barcelona from ICFO - Institute of Photonic Sciences. She plans on solving biological problems by drawing on her background in nonlinear optics, optical solitons, and quantum imaging. For Carrasco, "joining the Xie Group is at the same time a dream and a challenge." (8/05)

Congratulations to Brian English, who this August was awarded the Graduate Student Poster Award sponsored by Eli Lilly and Co. at the Protein Society Symposium in Boston. Titled "A Michaelis-Menten Study of individual Beta-Galactosidases," it explains why the Michaelis-Menten equation is so widely applicable, even to the ever-fluctuating enzyme. (8/05)

This July, the Second Annual CARS Workshop at Harvard was such a great success, we are planning a third in 2006! (7/05)

This May the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research awarded Xie Group's Dr. Charles Schroeder with a two year fellowship. Designed to further research in the causes, origin, and treatment of cancer, the award will be put to good use. Schroeder plans to conduct a single molecule study of reverse transcriptase, the enzyme responsible for converting viral genomic RNA to DNA. (5/05)

Perhaps it was because Dr. David Ward was raised on a remote Texan ranch (to this day his "home town" remains nameless!) that he later went on to explore Iraq, Kuwait, former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Haiti. In any case, whatever his reason, Ward has certainly lived an interesting life. After earning his B.S. in physics from the College of Charleston he joined the Navy and wound up attached to a special boat unit on SEAL team 2. Later he completed his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at M.I.T. Most recently he's "settled down" to a new project here in the Xie Group to work on single molecule spectroscopy.

Congratulations to Dr. Ji Yu, who was a recipient of the Merck Award for Genome-related Research this March. Yu, who received the fellowship for his work in gene expression, says that he considers the award a great honor. "It means that this work is being acknowledged by other bioscientists within the field," said Yu. (3/05)

Since biological and polymer physics are the focus of new post doc Charles Schroeder's research, he's a welcome addition to the Xie Group. He plans to use this knowledge to study biological processes through the use of single-molecule techniques. Born and raised in New Jersey, Schroeder got his undergrad at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2004 he received his Ph.D. from Stanford, where he worked with advisors Dr. Eric Shaqfeh and Dr. Steven Chu.

This September Professor Xiaoliang Sunney Xie was one of nine to receive the NIH Director's Pioneer Award, which, according to NIH.org, was created to encourage talented individuals "to pursue high risk, high- impact research with the potential to make extraordinary contributions to our knowledge of human health."

The Xie Group will be awarded $500,000 in direct costs per year for five years. Professor Xie said that he is delighted to be a Pioneer Award recipient and that he shares the honor with his group. "The Pioneer Award encourages high risk endeavors, which is the path of our group, always filled with challenges, but also opportunities for the advancement of science," Xie said.