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Single-molecule methods leap ahead

Nature Methods volume 11, pages 1015–1018 (2014)Cite this article

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Much of our knowledge about biological systems has been obtained by examining ensembles of molecules. However, this has begun to change because of the unprecedented precision and clarity afforded by single-molecule measurements. The last decade has seen amazing advances in the resolution and complexity of these methods, making it possible to ask and answer entirely new types of biological questions.

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Figure 1: In the past 10 years, single-molecule methods have undergone major advances so that biological problems with wider ranges of timescale, length scale and complexity can now be routinely studied.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

Figure 2: Merging different single-molecule methods enables new capabilities that cannot be accessed using individual methods alone.

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

Figure 3

Katie Vicari/Nature Publishing Group

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Acknowledgements

Grants from the US National Science Foundation (PHY 1430124) and US National Institutes of Health (GM065367) supported T.H.'s single-molecule methods development efforts.

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  1. Taekjip Ha is in the Department of Physics, Center for the Physics of Living Cells and Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Urbana, Illinois, USA.,

    Taekjip Ha

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Ha, T. Single-molecule methods leap ahead. Nat Methods 11, 1015–1018 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3107

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