Microscope to image individual bio-molecules?

Biotech Digest
December 10, 2010

In Iowa, a new microscope that can image individual biological molecules has been developed by Sanjeevi Sivasankar. Sivasankar brought the idea for an integrated, single-molecule instrument to Ames when he started at Iowa State and the Ames Laboratory in 2008. He’s since built a laboratory prototype and improved its measurement capabilities and efficiency, working with Iowa State and Ames Laboratory post-doctoral researchers Hui Li and Sabyasachi Rakshit, plus Iowa State doctoral students Kristine Manibog and Chi-Fu Yen.

The new instrument, is advancing studies of cadherins and DNA, Sivasankar said. The researchers are also using it to study semiconducting nanocrystals in a research collaboration with Paul Alivisatos, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley. As he tests and proves the instrument, Sivasankar will begin working with Novascan Technologies Inc. of Ames to continue development.

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