Abstract

Proteins work as nanomachines in living organisms by assembling into a complex of one type of protein and/or its associated proteins. To unveil the dynamic behavior and functions of individual proteins on such a small scale, single-molecule measurement techniques have advanced tremendously in the past two decades, including total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, and optical trapping forcemetry. However, almost of these studies focused on only the single molecule. To further understand the physicochemical mechanism of protein functioning, attention is now shifting upward through the hierarchy, from individual elements to the cooperative behavior of their supramolecular system [1]. It is necessary to develop the ability to resolve individual molecules simultaneously within a working complex system at nanometer scale.

© 2015 Japan Society of Applied Physics, Optical Society of America