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 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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20
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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66
Physicists at MIT have developed a new way to probe inside an atom's nucleus, using the atom's own electrons as "messengers" within a molecule.
General Physics
Oct 23, 2025
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Researchers in McGill's Department of Physics have developed a new device that can trap and study DNA molecules without touching or damaging them. The device, which uses carefully tuned electric fields, offers scientists ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 3, 2025
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64
For the first time, scientists can view RNA molecules directly inside cells and tissue in minute detail and across the entire human genome concurrently, thanks to new technology created by a Yale research team.
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 2, 2025
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40
University of Michigan researchers have developed a tool powered by artificial intelligence that can help them examine the behavior of a single molecule out of a sea of information in the blink of an eye—or at least overnight.
Biotechnology
Oct 2, 2025
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20
Using optical tweezers, researchers at National Taiwan University have observed individual binding events in real time, offering new insights into the molecular regulation of homologous recombination.
Biotechnology
Sep 8, 2025
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21
Researchers at the Regensburg Center for Biochemistry (RCB) and the Regensburg Center for Ultrafast Nanoscopy (RUN) at the University of Regensburg are obtaining unique insights into the structure, dynamics and function of ...
Biotechnology
Aug 27, 2025
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21
