Nanoscale biophysics articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article |

    Structural, functional and localization studies reveal that Geobacter sulfurreducens pili cannot behave as microbial nanowires, instead functioning in a similar way to secretion pseudopili to export cytochrome nanowires that are essential for extracellular electron transfer.

    • Yangqi Gu
    • , Vishok Srikanth
    •  & Nikhil S. Malvankar

  • Perspective |

    Inanimate matter is beginning to show some signs of basic intelligence—the ability to sense, actuate and use memory, as controlled by an internal communication network in functional materials.

    • C. Kaspar
    • , B. J. Ravoo
    •  & W. H. P. Pernice

  • Article |

    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

  • Article |

    Using high-resolution atomic force microscopy of live cells, the authors present an updated view of the cell walls of both Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis.

    • L. Pasquina-Lemonche
    • , J. Burns
    •  & J. K. Hobbs

  • Article |

    Single-molecule visualization shows that condensin—a motor protein that extrudes DNA in one direction only—can encounter and pass a second condensin molecule to form a new type of DNA loop that gathers DNA from both sides.

    • Eugene Kim
    • , Jacob Kerssemakers
    •  & Cees Dekker

  • Letter |

    Short carbon nanotubes spontaneously insert into lipid bilayers and live cell membranes to form channels with useful and tunable transport properties that make them a promising biomimetic nanopore platform for developing cell interfaces, studying nanofluidic transport in biological channels, and creating stochastic sensors.

    • Jia Geng
    • , Kyunghoon Kim
    •  & Aleksandr Noy

  • Letter |

    Ordering in liquid-crystal applications is usually achieved using surfactants, but here, in modelled nanodroplets of liquid crystals and surfactants, the liquid crystals control the ordering effects, which resemble those seen in block copolymer ordering, such as spots and stripes.

    • J. A. Moreno-Razo
    • , E. J. Sambriski
    •  & J. J. de Pablo

  • Letter |

    Focal adhesions link the extracellular matrix by integrin receptors to cytoplasmic actin filaments and are fundamental to human physiology. These authors determine the molecular architecture of focal adhesions by mapping protein organization at the nanoscale level. The results demonstrate that focal adhesions possess a well-organized ultrastructure made up of at least three spatial and functional compartments that mediate their interdependent functions.

    • Pakorn Kanchanawong
    • , Gleb Shtengel
    •  & Clare M. Waterman

  • Letter |

    Many fields would benefit from a simple and efficient method of trapping single particles, but this is extremely difficult when dealing with nanometre-sized objects in solution. These authors show that grooves and pockets etched into fluidic channels that acquire a charge on exposure act as highly effective electrostatic traps. With further optimization, this trapping concept could allow contact-free confinement of single proteins and nanoparticles, their sorting and fractionation, or assembly into high-density arrays.

    • Madhavi Krishnan
    • , Nassiredin Mojarad
    •  & Vahid Sandoghdar

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