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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 15, 2026

Fluorescence Imaging with One-nanometer Accuracy (FIONA)

Fluorescence Imaging with One-nanometer Accuracy (FIONA)

Published on: September 26, 2014

Single-molecule nanometry for biological physics.

Hajin Kim¹, Taekjip Ha

¹Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.

Reports on Progress in Physics. Physical Society (Great Britain)

|December 20, 2012

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

New nanometry techniques allow precise tracking of single molecules in biological systems. These advancements offer unprecedented insights into motor protein movement and cellular processes at the nanoscale.

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Last Updated: May 15, 2026

Fluorescence Imaging with One-nanometer Accuracy (FIONA)

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Published on: September 26, 2014

Single-Molecule Imaging of Nuclear Transport

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Published on: June 9, 2010

Monitoring Conformational Dynamics of Single Unmodified Proteins using Plasmonic Nanotweezers

Monitoring Conformational Dynamics of Single Unmodified Proteins using Plasmonic Nanotweezers

Published on: March 21, 2025

Area of Science:

Biophysics
Nanotechnology
Physical Chemistry

Background:

Elementary biological components operate at the nanoscale, posing challenges for visualization due to their small size and thermal fluctuations.
Traditional methods struggle to precisely track molecular actions in their native cellular environments.

Purpose of the Study:

To highlight recent advancements in single-molecule nanometry for precise biological measurements.
To demonstrate how these techniques provide fundamental insights into motor protein dynamics and cellular processes.

Main Methods:

Single-molecule nanometry for determining molecular positions with nanometer precision.
Measuring relative motion between molecules with sub-nanometer precision and millisecond time resolution.
Utilizing interactions between multiple fluorescent molecules (3-4) to measure multiple coordinates.

Main Results:

Achieved nanometer precision in single-molecule localization, limited by shot noise.
Demonstrated ∼0.3 nm precision in relative motion tracking at ∼1 ms resolution.
Enabled correlation of movements for multiple biological components by measuring 3 and 6 coordinates.

Conclusions:

Single-molecule nanometry offers powerful tools for understanding biological physics at the molecular level.
Combining optical tweezers with single-molecule fluorescence detection opens new avenues for multi-dimensional nanoscale measurements.
These techniques are crucial for unraveling the mechanisms of motor proteins and other cellular machinery.