SPM investigations of Biomolecules

Biomolecules or biopolymers are the elementary structural bricks of all living nature including the smallest viruses. Atomic force microscopy helps to understand structural and mechanical properties of biological objects consisting of or containing proteins, nucleic acids, polysacharides and biomolecules belonging to other classes. It allows to prove data obtained with another structural and analytical methods and sometimes to receive valuable information in the cases when another methods either are not perfect or cannot be applied. The progress made in AFM equipment and scanning techniques as well as data processing now allows imaging of soft samples with subnanometer resolution, thus in our days biomolecules can be studied individually. The role of new types of cantilevers having specially sharpened tips in successful achievement of true molecular resolution is hardly to overestimate.