Kraftspektroskopie — Dynamik und Manipulation einzelner Moleküle

Over the last decade, the development of single molecule methods has allowed us to interface individual biomolecules, to subject them to mechanical load and to measure their conformational response. In this article, we introduce the new possibilities of force spectroscopy by AFM (atomic force microscope) and optical tweezers for the study of proteins. Applications of force spectroscopy for protein folding as well as force-dependent ligand binding in cell adhesion are discussed.