NSF Award
9903522
This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR)Phase I project aims to produce a system based on the atomic force microscope (AFM) for nanometer scale imaging of biological samples that is orders of magnitude faster than current AFMs. In all of its forms, the microscope is probably the most widely used tool in the investigation of biological structure and function. The introduction of the atomic force microscope extended the capabilities of the microscopes that are available to biologists to nanometer-scale resolution. The study of living and moving biological systems, on time scales of seconds, with nanometer scale resolution, is becoming increasingly important in biological research. Self-assembled monolayers, proteins, and cellular processes all fall into this category. Existing AFMs fall short of the requirements for these applications because of speed and sensitivity limitations in fluid operation. Additionally, the new system will be optimized for fluid operation in order to give researchers active control over imaging dynamics. This composite system will allow researchers to probe nanometer scale biological phenomena at speeds never before accessible. Commercial applications of the proposed system include imaging and analysis of DNA, RNA, chromosomes, lipid bilayers, membranes, cell surfaces, proteins, protein arrays, protein crystals, and nonmembrane proteins.
