Single molecule techniques comprise a set of experimental methods that detect, manipulate, and analyze individual biomolecules or molecular complexes, circumventing ensemble averaging and revealing heterogeneity in structure, dynamics, and function. Core modalities include single-molecule fluorescence (e.g., smFRET, TIRF microscopy), optical and magnetic tweezers, atomic force microscopy, and nanopore-based sensing. These techniques enable direct measurement of forces, conformational changes, binding/unbinding events, and reaction pathways with nanometer spatial and millisecond (or better) temporal resolution. They are widely applied to study nucleic acid–protein interactions, molecular motors, enzyme kinetics, folding energy landscapes, and mechanotransduction at the level of individual molecules.
Researchers at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and collaborating institutions recently built a generative AI model that can recreate molecular structures from the movement of the molecule's ...
Optics & Photonics
Mar 18, 2026
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30
Proteins, one of the smallest building blocks of life on Earth, hold promise for answering some of biology's biggest questions. Consisting of amino acids strung together into peptide chains, these molecules perform much of ...
Biotechnology
Mar 18, 2026
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By placing single-atom-thick adlayers of p-block metals on commonly employed gold electrodes (d-block), a research team at National Taiwan University has successfully quantified the "interfacial hopping integral" between ...
Nanophysics
Mar 13, 2026
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43
Christine Dunham is a leading expert on the ribosome—an elaborate macro-molecular machine that operates like a factory within a cell to manufacture proteins. "The ribosome is really the most fascinating molecule in a cell," ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 11, 2026
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13
Every time we feel a gentle tap on the skin, specialized nerve cells convert that physical force into an electrical signal the brain can interpret as touch. While scientists have long known that a protein called PIEZO2 acts ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 7, 2026
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28
Inspired by the simple mechanism of a seesaw—when one side goes up, the other side goes down—researchers asked an intriguing question: Could a single molecule switch between two different roles like a seesaw? This idea ...
Biotechnology
Feb 20, 2026
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Ion channels are narrow passageways that play a pivotal role in many biological processes. To model how ions move through these tight spaces, pores need to be fabricated at very small length scales. The narrowest regions ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 18, 2026
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72
Constructed with tubulin heterodimers connected into a hollow cylinder, the microtubule, an essential component of the cytoskeleton, plays a vital role in various intracellular processes. In a recent study, a cross-disciplinary ...
Biotechnology
Feb 9, 2026
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14
The global development of civilization diseases is a challenge that requires many modern solutions, not only in terms of treatment, but first and foremost in terms of early diagnostics. One of the highly sensitive methods ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 9, 2026
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14
Physical forces from gravity, muscle contraction, and more have strong impacts on how the cells in our bodies behave. For instance, weight-bearing exercise helps stave off osteoporosis because cells in our bones sense that ...
Bio & Medicine
Feb 9, 2026
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