title: Biomolecular force measurements and the atomic force microscope.
abstract: The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a surface-sensitive instrument capable of imaging biological samples at nanometer resolution in all environments including liquids. The sensitivity of the AFM cantilever, to forces in the pico Newton range, has been exploited to measure breakaway forces between biomolecules and to measure folding-unfolding forces within single proteins. By attaching specific antibodies to cantilevers the simultaneous imaging of target antigens and identification of antigen-antibody interactions have been demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37932, USA. allisondp@ornl.gov
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Allison
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hinterdorfer
authors.forename: Wenhai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods