Since the invention of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in 1986 live cell imaging has gradually progressed inspite of fundamental limitations in generally applied laser beam deflection (LBD) force sensing. This has been achieved by developing algorithmically based protocols to quantitatively delineate the interactions of AFM probes with cell surfaces. A recent effort was the application of a relatively recent algorithm to image fine cellular protrusions or microvilli, a previously unachievable goal [1]. For this advance ultrasoft silicon probes with cantilever force constants of 0.0611N/m were required. A significant next step would be to implement the same ultrasensitive live cell imaging with an important class of large force constant (1-10N/m) functional glass probes for applications such as near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM), AFM sensing with patch clamping pipettes [1], scanning electrochemical microscopy etc. In the presentation this next step in live cell imaging is described, with considerable import for scanned probe imaging of live cells.
1. H. Schillersa, I. Medalsyb, S. Hub, A. L. Sladeb and J. E. Shaw, J. Molecular Recognition DOI: 10.1002/jmr. 2510 (2015)
