The Little Engine Shop is the web site of Jeff Gelles’ laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University.  We study “little engines”, the nanometer-sized machines made of protein, RNA, and DNA molecules that carry out essential processes in living cells.  A central focus of the lab is the use of single-molecule light microscopy methods to study the functional mechanisms of these macromolecular complexes in cytoskeletal function, transcription and transcription regulation, and DNA replication. Our research encompasses fields from cell and molecular biology through biochemistry and biophysics to soft condensed matter physics, Bayesian machine learning, and mathematical modeling. Lab members are affiliated with the Brandeis Biochemistry and Biophysics and Physics Ph.D. programs and Quantitative Biology Graduate Program.