bacteria, yeasts) and of hard abiotic surfaces ( e.g. The method provides unprecedented high-resolution (a few tens of nm) imaging of the mechanical features of soft biological samples ( e.g. The latter corresponds to an AFM probe that periodically hits the sample surface while the pico-newton level interaction force is recorded from cantilever deflection. The instrumental progress makes it currently possible to generate a large amount of data in a relatively short time, which is particularly true for AFM operating in so-called PeakForce tapping mode (Bruker corporation). Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique for the measurement of mechanical properties of individual cells in two ( x × y) or three ( x × y × time) dimensions.
