Atomic Force Microscopy: A Nanoscopic Application in Molecular and Cell Biology

Abstract

At the prosperous fields of nanoscience and biology, the nanoscale analysis of cells and cell membrane using atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an exciting and rapidly developing research area. Over the past decade, there has been tremendous progress in the use of AFM to observe living cells and membrane proteins at high resolution. Remarkable advances have been made in applying AFM-based force spectroscopy techniques to characterize surface biomechanical properties, to map receptor sites on cell surface, and to measure cellular interactions at the single-cell or single-molecule level. Moreover, recent developments in AFM combining advanced optical microscopy, such as confocal microscopy and near-field scanning optical microscopy, opened up new avenues for cell imaging at nanoscale resolution.