Rae Robertson-Anderson

Rae Marie Robertson-Anderson is an American biophysicist who is a Professor and Associate Provost at the University of San Diego. She works on soft matter physics and is particularly interested in the transport and molecular mechanics of biopolymer networks. Robertson-Anderson is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research.

Early life and education Robertson-Anderson grew up in Cincinnati, where she realised that she liked physics at high school. She studied physics at Georgetown University and graduated magna cum laude in 2003. She was supported by a Clare Boothe Luce scholarship to study the diffusion of granular materials. She used video fluorescence microscopy and single molecule tracking to monitor the diffusion coefficients of engineered DNA.

Research and career Robertson-Anderson joined the faculty of University of San Diego in 2009. She leads the Robertson-Anderson biophysics laboratory. She uses single-molecule microscopy and optical tweezers to understand macromolecule dynamics in soft matter. Using optical tweezer microrheology, Robertson-Anderson can measure intermolecular forces with piconewton precision. By using embedded microspheres and Stokes-Einstein relations it is possible to determine the viscoelastic properties of biomaterials.

Robertson-Anderson was awarded a United States Department of Defense Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant to study entangled DNA. Networks of actin have a range of structural and dynamical properties, and respond to stress and strain. She uses fluorescence force-measuring optical tweezers to link molecular deformation (strain) and resistive forces (stress). She develops analysis algorithms, microfluidics and macromolecular synthesis techniques to determine the dynamics of nucleic acids. Her platform, Spatiotemporal Light-sheet Assisted Multiscale Macromolecular Transport Analysis Probe (SLAMMTAP), can be used to characterise DNA and cytoskeleton environments. The circadian oscillator system is taken from cyanobacteria, and turns on and off in the presence of phosphate molecules. The proteins can function on the outside of living cells.

Robertson-Anderson is an advocate for undergraduate teaching and research. Her undergraduate student, Stephanie Gorczyca, won the American Physical Society LeRoy Apker Award for outstanding undergraduate research.