Michelle Dong Wang

The paper investigates how DNA braiding geometry affects supercoiling partitioning during replication, showing that substrate geometry influences torsional resistance and fork rotation.

This study shows that chromatin buffers torsional stress during transcription by enabling Pol II to transcribe through nucleosomes more efficiently than on single-nucleosome substrates.

This study develops a high-resolution assay to show that the replisome, composed of helicase and DNA polymerase, is a powerful torsional motor that regulates DNA replication stalling and reactivation.

This study investigates the polarity of RNA Polymerase II as a roadblock to DNA replication forks, showing that head-on collisions lead to stable binding and R-loop formation, with TFIIS facilitating hybrid removal.

This study investigates how Rad51 and Rad54 remodel donor DNA during homology search by applying tension and torsion forces, revealing their role in controlling Rad51-ssDNA filament dynamics.

This paper describes a surface passivation assay to reduce non-specific adsorption for single-molecule studies of chromatin and topoisomerase II.

This paper introduces tunable elliptical cylinders for rotational mechanical studies of DNA, achieving higher rotation rates and improved torque measurement resolution compared to quartz cylinders.

This study identifies a new role for human topoisomerase IIα in promoting chromatin condensation through a polymer-collapse phase transition, independent of its catalytic activity.

The paper introduces a high-resolution method using TMP to map torsional stress in yeast chromatin, revealing its role in transcription and 3D genome organization.

This study investigates how DNA polymerase interacts with the replication fork under stress and finds that prolonged stress inactivates replication and locks the fork, which is reversible only by helicase.

This study investigates the torsional mechanics of circular DNA, showing that underwound DNA has a torque near the melting threshold and equal force/torque distribution, with implications for DNA-protein interactions.

This paper develops a numerical platform and experimental method to calculate and measure optical torque on DNA, showing agreement between simulations and measurements.