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I. Gebeshuber:
"Scanning probe microscopy: from cells to single atoms";
in: "Abstracts NATO ASI "From cells to proteins: Imaging Nature across dimensions", NATO ASI, Pisa/I, 2004, S. 45.

Scanning probe microscopy offers interesting approaches to not only image but also manipulate samples in the micro- and nanoscale regime.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) became one of the most versatile microscopy methods in biology1. AFM works in ambient conditions, and in many cases no extensive sample preparation technique is necessary.
From imaging single cells to imaging large proteins, and even more interesting, protein-protein interactions in real time, to micro- and nanoscale investigations of mechanical parameters, AFM proved a useful techniquee.g. 2,3,4,5.
Imaging biomolecules at true atomic resolution is a dream which might come true with in the next years. A strong new technique is magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), which combines three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with the excellent force sensitivity of AFM. This type of microscopy opens the possibility of performing scanned-probe MRI with a sensitivity more than 10 million times better than the sensitivity of the medical MRI devices used to visualize organs in the human body6,7. This improved sensitivity extends MRI into the nanometer realm!