Recent developments of atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been accomplished through various technical and instrumental innovations, including high-resolution and recognition imaging technology under physiological conditions, fast-scanning AFM, and general methods for cantilever modification and force measurement. All these techniques are now highly powerful not only in material sciences but also in basic biological sciences. There are many nanotechnology books that focus on materials, instruments, and applications in engineering and medicine, but only few of them are directed toward basic biological sciences. This book challenges to bridge this gap.
This review volume is edited by a prominent researcher, Dr. Takeyasu (Kyoto), and provides an overview of modern AFM technologies: the basic AFM protocols in Part I, newly developed technologies in Part II, and most recent applications of AFM technologies in biological sciences in Parts III and IV. The chapters are contributed by some of the leading scientists in the field of nanobiology, Drs Ando (Kanazawa), Shao (Shanghai), Franz (Karlsruhe), Hinterdorfer (Linz), Oberleithner (Munster), Pelling (Ottawa), and Henderson and Edwardson (Cambridge).
About the Editor:
Prof. Kunio Takeyasu was trained as zoologist and neuro-pharmacologist in his early career as a graduate student at HiroshimaUniversity and OsakaUniversity. After his post-doctoral research on the molecular and cell biological aspects of the membrane proteins such as acetylcholine receptors and ion-motive ATPases at CornellUniversity and the JohnsHopkinsUniversity, he joined University of Virginia as an assistant professor in 1988, and started to utilize atomic force microscopy (AFM) in biological studies. After 4 years of research and teaching at the OhioStateUniversity, he moved to KyotoUniversity as a full professor in 1995. Since then, he has been developing the technologies for biological application of AFM. His most recent research has been focusing on single-molecule imaging of membrane proteins and chromatin at sub-second time region with nano-meter space resolution. Dr. Takeyasu has been a member of Biophysical Society and American Society for Cell Biology.
