SPM/AFM (scanning probe microscopy/atomic force microscopy) offers many unique advantages to the study of biological process at the nanometer scale. ASM/AFM allows scientists to visualize, probe, and analyze the structure of biological molecules in their native environments with unprecedented resolution and without the need for rigorous sample preparation. Nanoscale binding events are known to be the primary events in a variety of biological phenomenon, from DNA replication and RNA transcription, to immune response, tissue growth, cellular differentiation, and the action of drugs, hormones, and toxic substances, to name just a few. SPM/AFM is also unique in its ability to detect nanoscale molecular forces such as those that occur on an SPM/AFM tip as it approaches and then retracts from a surface. This property has exposed the possibility of measuring inter- and intra-molecular forces at the single molecule level.
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