Together We Are Stronger: Protein Clustering at the Nanoscale

Cell surface proteins are known to assemble into nano- and microscale domains in order to govern biological processes, including cell adhesion, endocytosis, and immune responses. The small size and ephemerality of these structures have made their direct observation and functional analysis challenging. In this Perspective, I discuss recent progress made in applying nanotechniques to study protein clustering, emphasizing the use of state-of-the-art single-molecule atomic force microscopy, as reported by Strasser et al. in this issue of ACS Nano.