Application of Biomolecular Transport Systems for Optical Imaging

Recent advances in understanding how biomolecular motors work has raised the possibility that they might find applications as nanomachines. Among these applications is the imaging of surfaces with optical super-resolution. The talk will focus on how fluorescent microtubules and quantum dots propelled by kinesin motor proteins can be used as probes to measure optical near fields. In contrast to many alternative scanning methods, microtubules possess the advantages that they can be applied in a highly parallel manner and that they do not alter the fields to be measured.