title: Inventing atomic resolution scanning dielectric microscopy to see a single protein complex operation live at resonance in a neuron without touching or adulterating the cell.
abstract: A substantial ion flow in a normally wet protein masks any other forms of signal transmission. We use hysteresis and linear conduction (both are artifacts) as a marker to precisely wet a protein, which restricts the ionic conduction (hysteresis disappears), and at the same time, it is not denatured (quantized conductance and Raman spectra are intact). Pure electric visualization of proteins at work by eliminating the screening of ions, electrons, would change the way we study biology. Here we discuss the technical challenges resolved for imaging a protein or live cell using nonlinear dielectric response (spatial distribution of conductance, capacitance and phase, GCP trio). We electromagnetically triggered electrical, mechanical, thermal and ionic resonant vibrations in a protein. During resonant oscillations, we imaged the protein using resonant scanning tunneling microscopy of biomaterials (Brestum) and during ionic firing we imaged live what happens inside an axon core of a neuron by using our atomic scale scanning dielectric microscopy (Asadim). Both Asadim and Brestum are housed in a homebuilt scanning tunneling microscope (bio-STM) and a special micro-grid developed by us (patent JP-5187804) for fractal supercomputing. We found the trick to turn a membrane transparent and see inside without making any physical contact. We image live that a protein molecule adopts a unique configuration for each resonance frequency, - thus far unknown to biology. "Membrane alone fires" is found to be wrong after a century, micro-neuro-filaments communicate prior to firing to decide its necessity and then regulate it suitably. We introduce a series of technologies e.g., fractal grid, point contact, micro THz antenna, to discover that from atomic structure to a living cell, the biomaterials vibrate collectively.
authors.affiliation: * National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Lokesh
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.affiliation: † Nano Bio Systems Science, IIT Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.
authors.forename: Satyajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahu
authors.affiliation: ‡ CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology; Natural Products Chemistry Division, Jorhat-785006, Assam, India.
authors.forename: Subrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: § Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba 305-8577, Japan.
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shiga
authors.affiliation: * National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.affiliation: * National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, Tsukuba, Japan.
authors.forename: Anirban
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bandyopadhyay
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena; D004867:Equipment Design; D017709:Fractals; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism; D008839:Microelectrodes; D020527:Microscopy, Scanning Probe / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D014404:Tubulin / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014404:Tubulin
keywords: Scanning non-linear dielectric microscopy (SNDM); microtubule; neuron; resonance, protein; spectroscopy; tubulin