Resolving the Structure of a Single Biological Molecule

April 28, 2014

(Nanowerk News) – Researchers at the London Centre for Nanotechnology have determined the structure of DNA from measurements on a single molecule, and found that this structure is not as regular as one might think, reports the journal Small (“Single-Molecule Reconstruction of Oligonucleotide Secondary Structure by Atomic Force Microscopy”).  Our life depends on molecular machinery that is continuously at work in our bodies. The structure of these nanometre-scale machines is thus at the heart of our understanding of health and disease.