Biophysical methods articles within Nature

Featured

• Article | 08 May 2024

  Label-free detection and profiling of individual solution-phase molecules

  Enhanced light–molecule interactions in high-finesse fibre-based Fabry–Pérot microcavities are used to detect and profile individual unlabelled solution-phase biomolecules, leading to potential applications in the life and chemical sciences.

  • Lisa-Maria Needham
  • , Carlos Saavedra
  •  & Randall H. Goldsmith

• Article | 16 June 2021

  Localization atomic force microscopy

  A localization algorithm is applied to datasets obtained with conventional and high-speed atomic force microscopy to increase image resolution beyond the limits set by the radius of the tip used.

  • George R. Heath
  • , Ekaterina Kots
  •  & Simon Scheuring

• Letter | 17 July 2019

  Rotation tracking of genome-processing enzymes using DNA origami rotors

  ORBIT (origami-rotor-based imaging and tracking) is used to track the DNA rotation that results from DNA unwinding by RecBCD helicase and transcription by RNAP at a single-molecule scale and millisecond time resolution.

  • Pallav Kosuri
  • , Benjamin D. Altheimer
  •  & Xiaowei Zhuang

• Letter | 26 October 2017

  Inertial picobalance reveals fast mass fluctuations in mammalian cells

  A picobalance consisting of an optically excited microcantilever has been developed and used to measure the masses of individual healthy and virus-infected cells at high temporal and mass resolutions in culture conditions.

  • David Martínez-Martín
  • , Gotthold Fläschner
  •  & Daniel J. Müller

• Letter | 03 August 2016

  Asymmetric division of contractile domains couples cell positioning and fate specification

  Here, a combination of biophysical measurement, modelling, and genetic and experimental manipulation of cell contractile components is used to analyse the formation of the inner cell mass in the early mouse embryo.

  • Jean-Léon Maître
  • , Hervé Turlier
  •  & Takashi Hiiragi

• Outlook | 30 January 2013

  Diagnostics: The new risk predictors

  New imaging methods and biomarkers may help identify people who are at risk for heart disease but are overlooked by standard risk assessments.

  • Peter Gwynne

• Outlook | 30 January 2013

  Physiology: Beating stroke

  New drugs and more focused therapy might cut down on atrial fibrillation and reduce the incidence of stroke.

  • Neil Savage

• Letter | 20 May 2012

  Atomic model of the type III secretion system needle

  The structure of the needle of the type III secretion system of Salmonella typhimurium, used to inject virulence proteins into host cells during infection, has been resolved by a combination of in vitro needle production, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, electron microscopy and Rosetta modelling at atomic resolution.

  • Antoine Loquet
  • , Nikolaos G. Sgourakis
  •  & Adam Lange

• Research Highlights | 17 August 2011

  Skin-deep electronics

• Letter | 13 July 2011

  Low-energy control of electrical turbulence in the heart

  • Stefan Luther
  • , Flavio H. Fenton
  •  & Eberhard Bodenschatz

• Letter | 06 July 2011

  The ribosome uses two active mechanisms to unwind messenger RNA during translation

  • Xiaohui Qu
  • , Jin-Der Wen
  •  & Ignacio Tinoco

• Letter | 01 June 2011

  Ultra-prolonged activation of CO₂-sensing neurons disorients mosquitoes

  • Stephanie Lynn Turner
  • , Nan Li
  •  & Anandasankar Ray

• Letter | 22 May 2011

  Tunable pK_a values and the basis of opposite charge selectivities in nicotinic-type receptors

  • Gisela D. Cymes
  •  & Claudio Grosman

• Article | 27 April 2011

  Local sleep in awake rats

  • Vladyslav V. Vyazovskiy
  • , Umberto Olcese
  •  & Giulio Tononi

• Letter | 16 September 2010

  Production and application of electron vortex beams

  It was demonstrated recently that passing electrons through a spiral stack of graphite thin films generates an electron beam with orbital angular momentum — analogous to the spiralling wavefronts that can be introduced in photon beams and which have found widespread application. Here, a versatile holographic technique for generating these twisted electron beams is described. Moreover, a demonstration is provided of their potential use in probing a material's magnetic properties.

  • J. Verbeeck
  • , H. Tian
  •  & P. Schattschneider

• Research Highlights | 01 September 2010

  Animal behaviour: Lobster shock

• Research Highlights | 23 June 2010

  Imaging: Cell-wall secrets

• Review Article | 09 June 2010

  Measurement of single-cell dynamics

  • David G. Spiller
  • , Christopher D. Wood
  •  & Michael R. H. White

• Article | 15 April 2010

  Real-time tRNA transit on single translating ribosomes at codon resolution

  Single-molecule studies allow biological processes to be examined one molecule at a time, as they occur. Here, zero-mode waveguides have been used to concentrate reactions in zeptolitre-sized volumes, making it possible to study real-time translocation by the ribosome. The binding of transfer RNAs (tRNAs) to the ribosome could be followed; the results show that tRNA release from the exit site is uncoupled from tRNA binding to the aminoacyl-tRNA site.

  • Sotaro Uemura
  • , Colin Echeverría Aitken
  •  & Joseph D. Puglisi

• News & Views | 03 March 2010

  When mica and water meet

  A neat mode of operation of the atomic force microscope has been used to probe the interface between mica and water. The results help to settle a long-standing debate about the nature of this interface.

  • Joost W. M. Frenken
  •  & Tjerk H. Oosterkamp