Single molecule interactions in biological systems
The interactions of biological molecules are traditionally investigated using ensemble techniques. These provide information on the molecular behaviour based on averaged data resulting from collective ensemble properties. While this has enabled the resolution of structure and function of many protei...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
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2003
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10023/ |
| _version_ | 1848791010734243840 |
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| author | Tessmer, Ingrid |
| author_facet | Tessmer, Ingrid |
| author_sort | Tessmer, Ingrid |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The interactions of biological molecules are traditionally investigated using ensemble techniques. These provide information on the molecular behaviour based on averaged data resulting from collective ensemble properties. While this has enabled the resolution of structure and function of many proteins and other biomolecules, an understanding of how and why the molecules go about structural changes and modulate inter- and intra-molecular interactions is difficult to gain using these approaches.
More recently, single molecule techniques have evolved. These allow us to follow the behaviour of the individual molecules over time and/or under changing conditions. From such data, subtle molecular changes can be resolved without the need to synchronise the system. Further, variations within a biological system can be detected which would be lost using the ensemble techniques, due to the concomitant averaging procedures. This is exploited to help understand the molecular procedures involved.
In this thesis, the application and comparison of two of the main single molecule techniques, optical tweezers and AFM, are described. With these, a range of systems was investigated; namely drug-DNA, protein-DNA, and cell adhesive interactions. The presented results provide new and complementary information on the different biological systems, demonstrating the diversity of single molecule applications.
The combination of different experimental approaches was further exploited to gain a more complete picture of the observed processes. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:21:43Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-10023 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T18:21:43Z |
| publishDate | 2003 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-100232025-02-28T11:06:54Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10023/ Single molecule interactions in biological systems Tessmer, Ingrid The interactions of biological molecules are traditionally investigated using ensemble techniques. These provide information on the molecular behaviour based on averaged data resulting from collective ensemble properties. While this has enabled the resolution of structure and function of many proteins and other biomolecules, an understanding of how and why the molecules go about structural changes and modulate inter- and intra-molecular interactions is difficult to gain using these approaches. More recently, single molecule techniques have evolved. These allow us to follow the behaviour of the individual molecules over time and/or under changing conditions. From such data, subtle molecular changes can be resolved without the need to synchronise the system. Further, variations within a biological system can be detected which would be lost using the ensemble techniques, due to the concomitant averaging procedures. This is exploited to help understand the molecular procedures involved. In this thesis, the application and comparison of two of the main single molecule techniques, optical tweezers and AFM, are described. With these, a range of systems was investigated; namely drug-DNA, protein-DNA, and cell adhesive interactions. The presented results provide new and complementary information on the different biological systems, demonstrating the diversity of single molecule applications. The combination of different experimental approaches was further exploited to gain a more complete picture of the observed processes. 2003 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10023/1/thesis.pdf Tessmer, Ingrid (2003) Single molecule interactions in biological systems. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. AFM atomic force microscopy optical tweezers drug-DNA interactions protein-DNA interactions cell adhesive interactions single molecule assay single molecule studies force spectroscopy |
| spellingShingle | AFM atomic force microscopy optical tweezers drug-DNA interactions protein-DNA interactions cell adhesive interactions single molecule assay single molecule studies force spectroscopy Tessmer, Ingrid Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title | Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title_full | Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title_fullStr | Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title_full_unstemmed | Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title_short | Single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| title_sort | single molecule interactions in biological systems |
| topic | AFM atomic force microscopy optical tweezers drug-DNA interactions protein-DNA interactions cell adhesive interactions single molecule assay single molecule studies force spectroscopy |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/10023/ |