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.
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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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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19
Proteins are the molecular machines of cells. They are produced in protein factories called ribosomes based on their blueprint—the genetic information. Here, the basic building blocks of proteins, amino acids, are assembled ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 5, 2026
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95
By combining two fundamentally different microscopy techniques, researchers can now measure the optical properties of a sample with pinpoint accuracy. The original goal was to investigate biological samples on a molecular ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 29, 2026
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20
For the first time, researchers have directly visualized how newly formed cellular organelles leave the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and transition onto microtubule tracks inside living cells. This new finding reveals that ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 28, 2026
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49
An international team of researchers including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a way to reveal the smallest of malfunctions in the biochemical machinery that makes proteins in our bodies. ...
Biotechnology
Jan 27, 2026
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57
Researchers at Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI) and the Cancer Research Institute at Kanazawa University have uncovered how targeted lung cancer drugs alter the shape and behavior of a key cancer-driving protein—revealing ...
Bio & Medicine
Jan 26, 2026
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19
Scientists at the Nano Life Science Institute (WPI-NanoLSI), Kanazawa University, have captured real-time images showing how a key brain enzyme organizes itself to help memory formation.
Bio & Medicine
Jan 12, 2026
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31
An interdisciplinary team of University of Tennessee, Knoxville researchers recently published in Biophysical Journal on their development of a new statistical method that improves analysis in single-molecule fluorescence ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 19, 2025
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60
When disease begins forming inside the human body, something subtle happens long before symptoms appear. Individual molecules such as DNA, RNA, peptides, or proteins begin shifting in quantity or shape. Detecting these tiny ...
Bio & Medicine
Dec 19, 2025
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