Observing cellular activity, one molecule at a time

Using a new mode of atomic force microscopy, researchers at EPFL have found a way to see and measure protein assembly in real time and with unprecedented detail. Proteins and molecules assemble and disassemble naturally as part of many essential biological processes. It is very difficult to observe these mechanisms, which are often complex and take place at the nanometer scale, far smaller than the normal visible range. At EPFL, however, an interdisciplinary team of researchers* has invented and applied a technique that allows these mechanisms to be examined with unprecedented precision. Their work is the subject of a paper published. Nanometric structures can only be seen with specialty microscopes, such as atomic force microscopes, which were invented in the mid-1980s. These instruments create an image by physically "feeling" the topography of the sample with an atomically sharp tip at the end of a tiny cantilever.