Simultaneous topographic and recognition imaging of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) on single human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) plays an important role in signaling pathway of the development of breast cancer cells. Since EGFR overexpresses in most breast cancer cells, it is regarded as a biomarker molecule of breast cancer cells. Here we demonstrated a new AFM technique—topography and recognition (TREC) imaging—to simultaneously obtain highly sensitive and specific molecular recognition images and high-resolution topographic images of EGFR on single breast cancer cells.