2004-01-10 02:20:00WuYung123
原子力顯微鏡
(based on Muller et. al. 2003, 12th International conf. On STM/S and related techniques)
Biological life may be viewed as a hierarchy of molecular processes, and individual bionaonmachines can have many different functions. Conventional biological techniques can only detect sufficient signals from large assemblies of cellular machines, thus the measured function is actually a normal distribution of individual behaviors. While AFM with special properties mentioned below allows us to investigate the behaviors and functioning of individual bionanomachines.
Since the invention of AFM in 1986, it’s potential to study biological sample ranging from single molecule to living cell has always been recognized as very important. AFM has an exceptionally high spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio allowing the (near-)atomic resolution of individual molecules to be observed. In addition, biological samples remain in a plastic state allowing direct observation of molecular dynamics, studying structure-function relationships of protein and their functionally relevant assemblies. Bio-AFM samples can be in the native, unlabeled state and to be studied in their physiological environment, which makes the investigation closer to the reality. Having said that, protein is like a water-filled-sponge, and the force applied by the cantilever can deform the molecule, therefore not showing the true z-value.
Biological life may be viewed as a hierarchy of molecular processes, and individual bionaonmachines can have many different functions. Conventional biological techniques can only detect sufficient signals from large assemblies of cellular machines, thus the measured function is actually a normal distribution of individual behaviors. While AFM with special properties mentioned below allows us to investigate the behaviors and functioning of individual bionanomachines.
Since the invention of AFM in 1986, it’s potential to study biological sample ranging from single molecule to living cell has always been recognized as very important. AFM has an exceptionally high spatial resolution and signal to noise ratio allowing the (near-)atomic resolution of individual molecules to be observed. In addition, biological samples remain in a plastic state allowing direct observation of molecular dynamics, studying structure-function relationships of protein and their functionally relevant assemblies. Bio-AFM samples can be in the native, unlabeled state and to be studied in their physiological environment, which makes the investigation closer to the reality. Having said that, protein is like a water-filled-sponge, and the force applied by the cantilever can deform the molecule, therefore not showing the true z-value.