PhD, Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 1996 BS, Physics, Seoul National University, 1990

Ha’s research is focused on pushing the limits of single-molecule detection methods to study complex biological systems. His group develops state-of-the-art biophysical techniques (e.g., multicolor fluorescence, super-resolution imaging, combined force and fluorescence spectroscopy, vesicular encapsulation, single-molecule pull-down) and applies them to study diverse protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein complexes, and mechanical perturbation and response of these systems both in vitro and in vivo.View more details.

A. Jain, R. Liu, B. Ramani, E. Arauz, Y. Ishitsuka, K. Ragunathan, J. Park, J. Chen, Y. K. Xiang and T. Ha, “Probing cellular protein complexes using single-molecule pull-down,” Nature 473, 484–488 (2011). R. Vafabakhsh and T. Ha, “Extreme bendability of DNA less than 100 base pairs long revealed by single molecule cyclization,” Science, 337, 1097–1101 (2012). X. Wang and T. Ha, “Defining Single Molecular Forces Required to Activate Integrin and Notch Signaling,” Science 340, 991–994 (2013). T. Ngo, Q. Zhang, R. Zhou, J. G. Yodh and T. Ha, “Asymmetric unwrapping of nucleosomes under tension directed by DNA local flexibility,” Cell 160, 1135–1144 (2015). J. Fei, D. Singh, Q. Zhang, S. Park, D. Balasubramanian, I. Golding, C. K. Vanderpool and T. Ha, “Determination of in vivo target search kinetics of regulatory noncoding RNA,” Science 347, 1371-1374 (2015). S. Arslan, R. Khafizov, C. D. Thomas, Y. R. Chemla and T. Ha, “Engineering of a superhelicase through conformational control,” Science 348, 344–347 (2015).