My research interests

I was born in Argentina, studied physics in the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and later in the Balseiro Insitute, at the Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica in Bariloche. During my Msc in Physics, I worked in the laboratory of Pablo Etchegoin studying phase transitions in liquid crystals and protein dynamics by Raman spectroscopy and computer simulations. For my PhD, I worked in the laboratories of Marshall Stark and Olwyn Byron, where I studied various functional and structural aspects of Tn3 resolvase (Tn3R), a site-specific DNA recombinase responsible for the later step in Tn3 transposition, and developed a novel computational methodology to reconstruct globally the structures of macromolecules from several independent lowres datasets and applied it to solve several biological problems.

For my postdoc, I moved to Berkeley where I worked in the laboratories of Nick Cozzarelli, James Berger and Carlos Bustamante, using single molecule manipulation techniques to study the molecular mechanisms of DNA gyrase, FtsK and SpoIIIE, three molecular motors involved in DNA replication and segregation in bacteria. 

I have currently started my own lab at the Centre de Biochimie Structurale (Montpellier, France), a joint institute between the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Institute Nationale de la Sante et la Recherche Medicale (INSERM) and the University of Montpellier. My lab will combine single-molecule manipulation and  fluorescence microscopy to study the molecular mechanisms of DNA transport in bacteria in vivo and in vitro.

Education and employment

1994-1996: Physics undergraduate at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Natural and Exact Sciences, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A

1996-2000: Master in Physics, Instituto Balseiro, Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica, Bariloche,  Argentina. 

2000-2004: Msc in Research and PhD at the Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK. 'Biophysical studies on Tn3 resolvase'. Supervisors: Prof. Marshall Stark and Dr. Olwyn Byron.

2005-2008: Postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Major field: Single-molecule biophysics. Laboratories of Profs. Nick Cozzarelli, Carlos Bustamante and James Berger.  

2008-present: Laureat Avenir (INSERM) and Charge de Recherche (CR1, CNRS) at the Centre de Biochimie Structurale, Montpellier, France.

Fellowships, Awards and Independent Funding

1996-2000: Studentship from the National Atomic Energy Commission of Argentina.
2000-4: Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust 4-year PhD Programme.
2005-6: Fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation.
2006-8: Long-term fellowship from the Human Frontiers Science Program.                                      2008-present: Avenir program (INSERM)

DNA Molecular Motors

Behavior of Tn3 Resolvase in Solution and Its Interaction with res.
Nollmann M, Byron O, Stark WM. 
Biophys J.  89(3):1920-31, Sep 2005

 Bacterial protein toxins: Pneumolysin

SOMO (SOlution MOdeler) differences between X-Ray- and NMR-derived bead models suggest a role for side chain flexibility in protein hydrodynamics.
Rai N, Nollmann M, Spotorno B, Tassara G, Byron O, Rocco M.
Structure (Camb).  13(5):723-34, May 2005

Protein vibrations and hydration layer

Origin of the lognormal shape in the boson-peak of globular proteins,
Nollmann M, Etchegoin P,
Physica A, 294 (1-2): 44-50 May 2001

Liquid Crystals

Comment on "Photon transmission technique for studying multiple phase transitions in a liquid crystal. Etchegoin P, Nollmann M
Physical Review E 61 (6): 7256-7258, Jun 2000