The scanning near-field optical microscope as a tool for proteomics

The identification of the entire genetic code of human DNA is more or less completed. With this knowledge, research in identifying the real informatio n lying in the genes, will begin. This information is contained in the prot eins, which are the main biological actors in the cell. For this reason pro teins will be targeted in biological investigations in the future. The stru cture, affinity and reactivity of each identified protein has to be determi ned, which is a primary goal in the field of proteomics. This will require new and better strategies to identify protein-protein interaction. Our appr oach, based on the detection and visualization of single proteins by scanni ng near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), has allowed us to visualize variou s fixed and fluorochrome-labelled proteins at the nanometer scale. Subseque ntly SNOM may then be developed to efficiently detect the specific behavior of a certain protein in response to other biomolecules. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.