Allemand co-pioneered single-molecule magnetic-tweezer manipulation of DNA and RNA, using calibrated magnetic forces/torques to measure the torsional and stretching mechanics of nucleic acids and the real-time kinetics of the motor proteins (helicases, polymerases, topoisomerases) that act on them. His joint lab with Vincent Croquette continues to develop new magnetic-tweezer instrumentation (including high-throughput and torque-sensing variants) applied to DNA replication, repair, and RNA processing machinery.
Croquette is a co-inventor of magnetic-tweezer single-molecule biophysics, applying it to helicase/topoisomerase mechanochemistry, DNA replication, and nucleic-acid mechanics; his group also develops complementary single-molecule readouts (stereo darkfield interferometry, mass photometry-adjacent tracking) for sub-nanometer 3D localization. He continues active, well-cited methodological development (e.g., recent reviews of magnetic-tweezer principles) alongside Jean-Francois Allemand.