Single Molecule Dynamics In Life Science

In this first comprehensive resource to cover the application of single molecule techniques to biological measurements, the pioneers in the field show how to both set up and interpret a single molecule experiment. Following an introduction to single molecule measurements and enzymology, the expert authors consider molecular motors and mechanical properties before moving on to the applications themselves. Detailed discussions of studies on protein enzymes, ribozymes and nucleic acids are also included.

Toshio Yanagida did his undergraduate and graduate studies in semi-conductor physics at Osaka University (Osaka, Japan). He then switched to biophysics in 1970 to pursue a career in basic science. He is now professor and Dean of the Osaka University Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, and project leader at both the Single Molecule Processes Project and the Kansai Advanced Research Center Communications in Japan. His teams are leading the development of single-molecule detection techniques to investigate the molecular motor of contracting muscle. Professor Yanagida is a founding editor of the Journals "Single Molecules" and "Small". For his scientific achievements, he has received numerous awards, among them the Japan Academy Award and the Japanese Imperial Award.
Yoshiharu Ishii studied physics and biophysics at the Universities of Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan. From 1983 onwards he worked at the Boston biomedical research Institute, USA, returning to Japan in 1992 to pursue his research career in applied biophysics. He organized research teams "Biomotron", "Single Molecule Processes,", and "Soft Nano-machines" with Prof. Yanagida to develop single molecule detection techniques. He is currently a research manager in Core Research for Evolutional Science an Technology (CREST) in Japan Science and Technology agency (JST). Dr. Ishii is an editorial board member of the journal "Open Biochemistry".

Preface.
List of Contributors.
1. A Road Map to Single Molecule Dynamics (Yoshiharu Ishii).
2. Single Molecule Study for Elucidating the Mechanism Used by Biosystems to Utilize Thermal Fluctuations (Toshio Yanagida).
3. Imaging and Molecular Motors (Yale E. Goldman).
4. Ion Channels (Toru Ide, Minako Hirano, and Yuko Takeuchi).
5, Signal Transduction across the Plasma Membrane (Masahiro Ueda, Tatsuo Shibata, and Yasushi Sako).
6. Dynamics of Membrane Receptors: Single-molecule Tracking of Quantum Dot Liganded Epidermal Growth Factor (Guy M. Hagen, Keith A. Lidke, Bernd Rieger, Diane S. Lidke, Wouter Caarls, Donna J. Arndt-Jovin, and Thomas M. Jovin).
7. Studying the Dynamics of Ligand-Receptor Complexes by Single-Molecule Techniques (Christophe Danelon and Horst Vogel).
8. RNA in cells (Valeria de Turris and Robert H. Singer).
9. Protein Dynamics and Interactions (Ted A. Laurence and Shimon Weiss).
10. Two Rotary Motors of ATP Synthase (Ryota lino and Hiroyuki Noji).
11. Single-molecule FRET Studies of Helicases and Holliday Junctions (Taekjip Ha).
12. High-speed Atomic Force Microscopy for Nano-Visualization of Bimolecular Processes (Toshio Ando, Takayuki Uchihashi, Noriyuki Kodera, Daisuke Yamamoto, Masaaki Taniguchi, Atsushi Miyagi, and Hayato Yamashita).
13. Force-clamp Spectroscopy of Single Proteins (Lorna Dougan, Jasna Brujic, and Julio M. Fernandez).
Index.