Nottingham University has chosen JPK Instruments' Forcerobot 300 system for its Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA), a multidisciplinary research division within the pharmacy school.
Dr Stephanie Allen is an associate professor and reader in molecular biophysics based within the LBSA and her research interests are focused on single-molecule biophysics; they are driven by a desire to understand how biological processes work at the molecular level.
Allen also has an interest in exploring how this research can be exploited for the development of new therapeutic approaches within the pharmaceutical and biomedical sectors.
Her work involves the application and development of a range of advanced biophysical tools such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D), the biomembrane force probe (BFP) and optical tweezers.
The Forcerobot 300 system gives Allen the ability to automate force spectroscopy measurements.
Force spectroscopy is an approach that enables the real-time study of molecular interactions to the single-molecule level.
Originating from the broad field of AFM, force spectroscopy directly enables the measurement of forces between and within molecules.
The sensitivity is high enough to characterise the force required to unfold a single protein molecule or the mechanical strength of a single biomolecular receptor-ligand bond.
Force spectroscopy measurements are being applied at Nottingham in a number of projects, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the pharmaceutical industry.
In single-molecule experiments, the group is studying the effects of bacterial DNA binding/remodelling proteins on the mechanical properties of DNA.
Other projects are aimed at gaining an improved understanding of the molecular basis of diseases, such as those related to the blood protein von Willebrand Factor (vWF).
The ability to record forces between a pair of interacting biomolecules is also being explored as a basis for new screening approaches, such as for drug discovery and/or biopharmaceutical formulation development.
While it is possible to perform such studies using conventional AFM instruments that are capable of performing force spectroscopy measurements, the experiments are not trivial to perform or optimise and can be very labour and time intensive; many force measurements are typically required per experiment.
The Forcerobot is an automated platform that enables the researcher to plan advanced experiments, with automated procedures enabling the continuous recording of thousands of force measurements and the change of key experimental variables within one experiment, such as measurement surface location, speed of approach and retraction of the probe.
It also checks laser alignment and calibration during the experiment.
Allen said: 'Working with the Forcerobot enables my research group to perform more experiments without tying them to the bench to manually adjust parameters between each measurement.
'The system shows a lot of potential to provide improved statistical data, which I hope will lead to important new results very soon,' she added.
The Forcerobot 300 has many further options for fluidics and temperature control to enable more reproducible results than achieved on a basic AFM system.
