Sweet Tips
Fingerprint Identification of Carbohydrates by Atomic Force Microscopy
Julian Thimm, Joachim Thiem
Inter- and intramolecular recognition processes of cell-membranes are essential for their selectivity. In many cases complex carbohydrates are considered to take part in such recognition events. In principle all interactions between molecules have their origin in an electrostatic attraction or repulsion. This contribution reports on Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as a tool to study force interactions of surface immobilized carbohydrates in situ. In particular several simple as well as more complex saccharide derivatives were attached to gold surfaces and AFM tips. Their interaction could be monitored allowing to discriminate species by their fingerprint forces and to measure their strength of interaction in the pico-Newton (pN) range.