Imaging myosin-driven stress fiber contraction with molecular resolution by high-speed AFM

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The overall aim of the project is to image large intracellular protein assemblies, such as actin-myosin fibers, with molecular resolution under physiological conditions by high-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM). However, previous HS-AFM scanners ususally have only small scan sizes. In this project phase we developed an ultrawide HS-AFM sample-scanner system able to record large topographic images (40 x 40 micrometer) containing up to 16 megapixels, providing molecular resolution throughout the image frame. With this unique scanner design we are now able for the first time to image even large intracellular structures and entire organelles in a single AFM scan with near molecular resolution aiding the quantitative analysis of such structurally heterogenous samples.