CELL BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF SCANNING NEAR-FIELD OPTICAL MICROSCOPY (SNOM)

Scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) yields high-resolution t opographic and optical images and is an important technique for visual izing biological systems. We summarize the literature on SNOM of biolo gical systems and present some of our recent applications in cellular biology. These include studies of: i) the binding of fluorescently con jugated lectins to cell surface glycoproteins on 3T3 Balb/c cells, ii) molecular interactions by fluorescence resonance energy transfer usin g photobleaching techniques, and iii) green fluorescent protein (GFP) expressed in bacteria.