Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 8: Charge Transfer
BP 8.6: Talk
Monday, March 26, 2007, 19:15–19:30, H44
Near-field optical imaging of a free-standing biological membrane under physiological conditions — •Nicole Neuberth1, Michael Hermann2, Joerg Wissler1, Daniela Diessel1, Dietmar Gradl2, and Andreas Naber1 — 1Institut für Angewandte Physik, Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH) — 2Zoologisches Institut II, Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH)
Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are supramolecular assemblies embedded in the nuclear envelope (NE) of a cell. They constitute a major gateway for the transport of molecules in and out of the nucleus. Though considerable insight has been gained into the signal-mediated translocation, it is still under debate in which way the structural properties of an NPC are related to its function as a "biological transport machine". We have recently demonstrated that SNOM provides a new possibility for an investigation of unfixed biological membranes [1]. For the intended transport studies, we improved the quality of our SNOM probe such that single molecule measurements with 30-nm-resolution are obtained routinely [2]. We developed a template based on cylindrical cavities in a photo-resist, and free-standing membrane patches are formed over the cavities by spreading the NE on the surface. We will present first near-field optical results of an unsupported nuclear membrane.
[1] C. Hoeppener et al., Biophys. J. 88, 3681 (2005).
[2] D. Molenda et al., Optics Exp. 13, 10688 (2005).