Each year our ‘nice’ list of papers is sourced from AFM community members like you getting in touch to share your favourites from the year, as well as from within our team at NuNano. The ‘long list’ was longer than ever this year, but we’ve trimmed it to a very festive 12.
Our eclectic mix includes some interesting new approaches to AFM such as one on a new image analysis platform for AFM and one on using AI to automate AFM experiments which is a subject we’re following with close interest.
2D materials are huge right now so we couldn’t have a list that didn’t include a paper about them. Equally, we’ve spotted some intriguing work using HS-AFM to really push the boundaries of biology – and creating some beautiful AFM images and movies in the process too as two of our top Nature paper picks demonstrate.
With your appetite hopefully appropriately whetted, we are delighted to share our top pick of papers published in 2024 (in alphabetic order!):
Diana M. Arvelo, Clara Garcia-Sacristan, Enrique Chacón, Pedro Tarazona, Ricardo Garcia; Interfacial water on collagen nanoribbons by 3D AFM. J. Chem. Phys. 28 April 2024; 160 (16): 164714. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0205611 AFM: Cypher S (Asylum Research) AFM Probe: USC-F1.2-k7.3 (NanoAndMore) and ArrowUHF AuD (NanoAndMore)
Georgina Benn, Christian Bortolini, David M Roberts, Alice L B Pyne, Séamus Holden, and Bart W Hoogenboom, Complement-mediated killing of Escherichia coli by mechanical destabilization of the cell envelope, EMBO J (2024) 43: 6152 – 6160, https://doi.org/10.1038/s44318-024-00266-3 AFM: Nanowizard III AFM with UltraSpeed head (Bruker) & Resolve (Bruker) AFM Probe: FASTSCAN-D (Bruker) & PF HIRS-F-B cantilevers (Bruker)
G. R. Heath, E. Micklethwaite, T. M. Storer, NanoLocz: Image Analysis Platform for AFM, High-Speed AFM, and Localization AFM. Small Methods 2024, 8, 2301766. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202301766
D.R. Jacobson, T.T. Perkins, Quantifying a light-induced energetic change in bacteriorhodopsin by force spectroscopy, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 121 (7) e2313818121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2313818121 (2024). AFM: Cypher ES (Asylum Research) AFM Probe: Ultrashort AFM cantilevers modified with FIB
Malcolm A Lawn, Zoe Bolton, Layne Murphy, Samuel Gartner, Yechan Oh and Victoria A Coleman, Step height measurement of monoatomic silicon crystal lattice steps with a commercial atomic force microscope, 2024 Meas. Sci. Technol. 35 105018, DOI 10.1088/1361-6501/ad490d AFM: MFP-3D (Asylum Research) AFM Probe: SCOUT 350 (NuNano)
Y. Liu, K. Roccapriore, M. Checa, S. M. Valleti, J.-C. Yang, S. Jesse, R. K. Vasudevan, AEcroscopy: A Software–Hardware Framework Empowering Microscopy Toward Automated and Autonomous Experimentation. Small Methods 2024, 8, 2301740. https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202301740 AFM: Multiple including Cypher (Asylum Research) & Nanosurf AFM
Naskar, S., Merino, A., Espadas, J. et al. Mechanism for Vipp1 spiral formation, ring biogenesis, and membrane repair. Nat Struct Mol Biol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01401-8 AFM: JPK NanoWizard Ultraspeed (Bruker) AFM Probe: USC-F0.3-k0.3-10 (Nanoworld)
Pan, S., Gries, K., Engel, B.D. et al. The cyanobacterial protein VIPP1 forms ESCRT-III-like structures on lipid bilayers. Nat Struct Mol Biol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01367-7 AFM: SS-NEX HS-AFM (RIBM) & JPK Nanowizard 4 (Bruker) AFM Probe: USC-F1.2-k0.15 (NanoWorld) & FASTSCAN-D (Bruker)
Thomas Rudolf Schneider, Luisa Stöckli, Ansgar Felbecker, Peter Niraj Nirmalraj, Protein fibril aggregation on red blood cells: a potential biomarker to distinguish neurodegenerative diseases from healthy aging, Brain Communications, Volume 6, Issue 3, 2024, fcae180,https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcae180 AFM: Dimension Icon (Bruker) AFM probe: SCOUT 150 HAR (NuNano)
Xue, Wei-Feng Trace_y: Software algorithms for structural analysis of individual helical filaments by three-dimensional contact point reconstruction atomic force, 2024, Structure 33, 1–9, doi: 10.1016/j.str.2024.11.007 AFM: Multimode 8 (Bruker) AFM Probe: SCANASYST-AIR (Bruker)
C. Yao, G. Leahu, M. Holicky, S. Liu, B. Fenech-Salerno, M. C. Lai, M. C. Larciprete, C. Ducati, G. Divitini, R. L. Voti, C. Sibilia, F. Torrisi, Thermally Conductive Hexagonal Boron Nitride/Polymer Composites for Efficient Heat Transport. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2024, 34, 2405235.https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202405235 AFM: MFP-3D (Asylum Research) AFM Probe: SCOUT 70 (NuNano)
Yuqing Wang, Chao Chen, Xuya Xiong, Sebastian Amland Skaanvik, Yuge Zhang, Espen Drath Bøjesen, Zegao Wang, Wei Liu, Mingdong Dong - In Situ Tracking of Water Oxidation Generated Nanoscale Dynamics in Layered Double Hydroxides Nanosheets - J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146, 25, 17032–17040 AFM: Multimode (Bruker); AFM Probe: SCANASYST-FLUID (Bruker)
What did you think? What have we missed off the list? Please do feel free to send us your thoughts and any favourite papers that you would recommend we added to our January reading list by emailing us community@nunano.com