COMBINING OPTICAL AND ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY FOR LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH

The atomic force microscope (AFM), a three-dimensional imaging tool th at can measure structures from the atomic level to mu m scale, has bee n combined with an inverted optical microscope capable of confocal ima ging. The robust design of this microscope, termed the BioScope(TM), e nables the operator to use fluorescent markers on a wide variety of bi ological specimens to determine internal structure to 200 nm resolutio n and determine surface morphology of the same sample to 20 nm resolut ion,chile imaging under physiological conditions. In this report rye d emonstrate the capabilities of the BioScope by examining living Xenopu s retinal glial (XR1) cells, Drosophila polytene chromosomes and collo idal gold-labeled plasmid DNA.