Our research interest is the investigation of the guest-host interactions in the condensed phase. Current activities have focused on the following:

1. Developing nonresonant hole burning spectroscopy and combining it with other vibrational spectroscopies to serve as spectroscopic probes to monitor the localized interactions between chromophore and oligonucleotide. Of particular emphasis is to introduce chromophores, e.g. BODIPY derivatives (covalent binding), 9-aminoacridine and thionin (intercalation), and DODCI (groove binding), to explore the telomeric DNA at the microscopic level. The binding sites between chromophore and DNA and the distortion occurring during the formation of guanine-quartet are stressed as well;
2. Examining the excitation migration along the DNA bases. Of particular concern is the structural change and conformational dynamics upon the excitation transport. The energy transfer between covalent binding of two chromophores with energy donor and energy acceptor at the two ends of DNA can be measured by applying time-resolved spectroscopic methods; and
3. Accounting for why a high resolution nonresonant hole spectrum can be observed for 9-aminoacridine, but not for ethidium bromide. Thoroughly examining the dipole-dipole interaction and the electron-phonon coupling may be essential for obtaining the high resolution of a nonresonant hole.