Research Projects
Biophysical imaging
Professor Rick Millane and Professor Philip Bones
Methods such as x-ray diffraction and electron and optical microscopy are used to image molecules and molecular assemblies in biological systems on µm to nm scales. Because the scattering cross section of these objects is so small, these techniques depend on the objects being arranged in regularly ordered arrays, so that the diffracted signals are coherently amplified. However, particularly for molecular assemblies with large aspect ratios, the ordering is sometimes imperfect. Our research is concerned with analysis and modeling of disordered arrays and their diffraction properties, analysis of images and diffraction patterns, and applications to polymer fibres and biomolecular arrays (e.g., microfibrils in muscle and the cone mosaic in the retina).
Top: Electron micrograph of a thin section through the myosin lattice of the muscle sarcomere (courtesy of the Muscle Institute, Imperial College, U.K.). Bottom: Analysis of the micrograph, identifying the positions and orientations of the myosin filaments. The latter information is used to characterise the nature of the myosin packing disorder.
Sample publications:
W.J. Stroud and R.P. Millane, Cylindrically averaged diffraction by distorted lattices, Proc. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A, 452, 151-173 (1996).
R.P. Millane and A. Goyal, Analysis of the disordered myosin filament lattice in muscle, Fiber Diffr. Rev., 9, 6-11 (2000).
B. Bodvarsson, S. Klim, S. Mortensen, M. Morkebjerg, J. Chen, J.R. Maclaren, C.H. Yoon, P.K. Luther, J.M. Squire, A. Bainbridge-Smith, P.J. Bones and R.P. Millane, Determination of myosin filament positions and orientations in electron micrographs of muscle cross-sections, In "Image Reconstruction from Incomplete Data III," P.J. Bones, M.A. Fiddy and R.P. Millane (Eds.), Proc. SPIE, Vol. 5562, 97-108 (2004).