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Updated: Dec 27, 2025

Force Spectroscopy of Single Protein Molecules Using an Atomic Force Microscope
Published on: February 28, 2019
Mechanical Unfolding and Refolding of Single Membrane Proteins by Atomic Force Microscopy
Noah Ritzmann1, Johannes Thoma2
1Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based single-molecule force spectroscopy allows direct physical manipulation of single membrane proteins under near-physiological conditions. It can be applied to study mechanical properties and molecular interactions as well as unfolding and folding pathways of membrane proteins. Here, we describe the basic procedure to study membrane proteins by single-molecule force spectroscopy and discuss general requirements of the experimental setup as well as common pitfalls typically encountered when working with membrane proteins in AFM.
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