Reconstructing Free Energy Barrier Heights and Crossing Rates From Single-Molecule Pulling Experiments

I will describe our recent efforts in developing theoretical models to reconstruct the free energy landscape of single molecules being stretched through pulling devices such as optical tweezers and AFM cantilevers. Specifically, I will describe the development of models and numerical procedures to properly capture the effects of the pulling device stiffness and connecting linkers in extracting the height and location of free energy barriers and the associated rates from constant-force and constant-velocity measurements.