Interaction forces between biomolecules investigated by atomic force microscopy

Abstract

Biomolecules working as nanoscale complex systems play essential roles in a wide variety of biofunctions. Frequency modulation atomic force microscopy (FM-AFM) is a powerful method capable of directly analyzing such molecular-scale biosystems. Here, the recent results of hydration structures and charge density distribution around biomolecules obtained by FM-AFM are presented. In addition, interaction forces between biomolecules has been directly investigated by two/three dimensional force mapping method.