title: Physics of nanomechanical spectrometry of viruses.
abstract: There is an emerging need of nanotools able to quantify the mechanical properties of single biological entities. A promising approach is the measurement of the shifts of the resonant frequencies of ultrathin cantilevers induced by the adsorption of the studied biological systems. Here, we present a detailed theoretical analysis to calculate the resonance frequency shift induced by the mechanical stiffness of viral nanotubes. The model accounts for the high surface-to-volume ratio featured by single biological entities, the shape anisotropy and the interfacial adhesion. The model is applied to the case in which tobacco mosaic virus is randomly delivered to a silicon nitride cantilever. The theoretical framework opens the door to a novel paradigm for biological spectrometry as well as for measuring the Young's modulus of biological systems with minimal strains.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid, CSIC. Isaac Newton 8 (PTM), Tres Cantos. E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ruz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid, CSIC. Isaac Newton 8 (PTM), Tres Cantos. E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tamayo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid, CSIC. Isaac Newton 8 (PTM), Tres Cantos. E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pini
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid, CSIC. Isaac Newton 8 (PTM), Tres Cantos. E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Kosaka
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics of Madrid, CSIC. Isaac Newton 8 (PTM), Tres Cantos. E-28760 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Calleja
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016880:Anisotropy; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods; D043942:Nanotubes; D017655:Silicon Compounds; D014027:Tobacco Mosaic Virus / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D017655:Silicon Compounds; C032734:silicon nitride