The Biophysical Society has named physicist Michelle Wang a 2024 Society Fellow. Wang is the James Gilbert White Distinguished Professor of the Physical Sciences in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

The Fellowship award honors the Society’s distinguished members who have demonstrated excellence in science and contributed to the expansion of the field of biophysics. In their announcement, the Society said Wang was chosen for “advancing our understanding of transcription, replication, and chromatin dynamics through the lens of DNA mechanics and topology.”

Wang’s research focuses on the motion, dynamics and mechanics of DNA roadblocks, how DNA motor proteins collide and navigate through roadblocks, and DNA topology during transcription and replication. To work with biological motors and DNA at the single molecule level, Wang develops and utilizes state-of-the-art (and often one-of-a-kind) instruments spanning optical trapping, magnetic tweezers, and nanophotonics. Some of the technologies Wang has developed to mimic DNA-based biological processes include “DNA unzipping” and optical trapping.

Read the full story on the College of Arts and Sciences website.