Contact info:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Physical Biosciences Division
One Cyclotron Road
Mailstop: Lewis Hall
Berkeley, California 94720
USA

Location: Building 38 - room 0307
Phone: (510) 642-4192
Fax: (510) 642-3599           
Email: RAMathies(at)lbl.gov

Research Emphasis
Our research is focused in two areas: 1. Vibrational and ultrafast spectroscopy of photoactive proteins and condensed phase reaction dynamics. 2. Microfabricated lab-on-a-chip systems for high performance DNA and biomolecular analysis -including the Microfabricated Organic Analyzer for the detection of biomolecular signatures of life on Mars.

The Raman Group uses laser spectroscopic techniques including resonance Raman spectroscopy, time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy, picosecond and femtosecond time-resolved absorption spectroscopy to study chemical and biological reaction dynamics with a particular focus on the mechanism of photoactive proteins and condensed phase chemical reaction dynamics.

Recent projects include: 1) picosecond time-resolved Raman investigations of the primary photochemistry of rhodopsin, 2) microchip flow resonance Raman experiments to elucidate structures of rhodopsin intermediates, 3) sub-picosecond time resolved vibrational techniques, and 4) studies of the excited-state structure and dynamics of the solvated electron.

The DNA Group works primarily on the development of high-performance microfabricated genetic and biochemical analysis systems. We do CE. These novel devices are being developed for the Human Genome Project, for high-speed, high-throughput DNA sequencing, for forensic and health care diagnostics, and for extraterrestrial exploration, DNA computing, point-of-care genetic analyzers, cellular interfacing, and pathogen detection..

Publications