Biomedical Applications of Atomic Force Microscopy

International audienceAtomic Force Microscopy is now widely used to explore biological questions1.More than a simple microscopy tool, AFM aggregated with the developments required to apply it in biology is a technology giving access to a new and original understanding of interactions at biological interfaces. The characterization of these interactions goes beyond the structural description and consists in characterizing biological functions. AFM as a force machine gives access to the characterization of some of these functions such as nanomechanical properties of cells, molecular recognition phenomena, cell adhesion to materials...In this presentation,I will review interdisciplinary developmentsranging from the functionalization of AFM tips with biomolecules2, to their use to probe the oligomerization state of G Protein coupled receptors and to the mechanobiological characterization of healthy or diseased cells, treated or not treated with a molecule of interest3,4.In a more prospective part, I will evoke the work in progress on the automation of AFM measurements on living cells in order to generate large quantities of data5,6. I will show the possible contribution of machine learning for data analysis before concluding on the ongoing evolution towards the notion of mechanom