Advanced Nanoscale Approaches to Single-(Bio)entity Sensing and Imaging

Area of Science:

• Biophysics
• Biochemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Individual biochemical entities exhibit heterogeneous behavior, crucial for biological processes.
• Conventional detection methods average responses, obscuring single-entity variations and stochastic events.
• Understanding heterogeneity is vital for advancing life sciences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review nanoscale approaches for sensing and imaging individual biological entities.
• To highlight advances in nanoprobes, nanopores, nanoimpacts, nanoplasmonics, and nanomachines.
• To demonstrate the utility of these tools for studying cells, proteins, nucleic acids, vesicles, and viruses.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing nanoscale tools with unique physicochemical properties.
• Employing nanoprobes for sensing and imaging.
• Leveraging nanopores, nanoimpacts, nanoplasmonics, and nanomachines for single-entity analysis.

Main Results:

• Nanoscale methods enable detection at the single-entity level, providing richer information than ensemble methods.
• These techniques overcome the limitations of conventional approaches by revealing heterogeneity.
• A comprehensive toolbox for single-entity biological studies is presented.

Conclusions:

• Nanoscale sensing and imaging offer unprecedented insights into biological systems at the single-entity level.
• These advanced methods are essential for understanding biological heterogeneity and stochastic phenomena.
• The reviewed techniques provide a powerful platform for diverse life science applications.