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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Force Spectroscopy of Single Protein Molecules Using an Atomic Force Microscope

Force Spectroscopy of Single Protein Molecules Using an Atomic Force Microscope

Published on: February 28, 2019

An open source/real-time atomic force microscope architecture to perform customizable force spectroscopy experiments.

Donatello Materassi¹, Paolo Baschieri, Bruno Tiribilli

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. mater013@umn.edu

The Review of Scientific Instruments

|September 4, 2009

Summary

We developed a flexible, low-cost atomic force microscope (AFM) system using open-source software and real-time control. This reliable AFM architecture enables advanced single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments.

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Area of Science:

Physics
Biophysics
Instrumentation

Background:

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is crucial for nanoscale imaging and force measurements.
Existing AFM systems can be expensive and lack experimental flexibility.
Customizable AFM architectures are needed for advanced research, such as single-molecule force spectroscopy.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a novel, cost-effective, and flexible atomic force microscope architecture.
To demonstrate the system's capability for customizable and automated experiments.
To validate the system's reliability for sophisticated single-molecule force spectroscopy.

Main Methods:

Implementation of a novel software platform using RTAI-LINUX for hard real-time control.
Development of an atomic force microscope architecture offering high experimental flexibility.
Utilizing a new method for estimating the optical lever constant.
Performing single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments on proteins.

Main Results:

Successful realization of a flexible and automated AFM system.
Demonstrated reliability through experimental results on well-studied proteins.
Achieved precise measurements in sophisticated single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments.
The system offers significant degrees of freedom in device behavior.

Conclusions:

The developed AFM architecture provides a flexible, reliable, and low-cost experimental instrument.
The system is suitable for advanced applications like single-molecule force spectroscopy.
Open-source software and real-time control algorithms enhance experimental capabilities.