Institute for Biophysics (IFB), Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria

Scientist in charge: Dr. Ferry Kienberger

http://www.bphys.uni-linz.ac.at/bioph/biophtit.htm

Expertise and experience

The IFB Linz develops and applies single molecule techniques for life sciences. In particular, atomic force microscopy (AFM) under physiological conditions has been used extensively for the investigation of various biomolecular interactions and for imaging nanoparticles, viruses, membranes, cell nuclei, and living cells. The IFB has developed a novel and patented  AFM mode that can simultaneously visualize specific binding sites while recording high resolution topographical images. The IFB is organizer of the annual Linz Winter Workshop ‘Single Molecule Techniques for Drug Discovery’ (~200 participants) and the annual Linz Winter School (~30 graduate students) on the same topic. The IFB group extensively participated in national and European projects on the use of Scanning Probe Techniques for Life Science, such as the current projects ‘Tips4Cells’ (STREP FP6-2003-LIFESCIE-ALTH-I 512101), ‘FORCETOOL’, (STREP FP6, STRP 013684), ‘NAS-SAP’ (STREP FP6 No. 13523) or several previous ones under FP5 and FP6.

Key equipment

6 microscopes and an additional AFM on an Olympus inverted microscope. A fully equipped biochemistry facility has gels, gel scanners, centrifuges, cold rooms, photometer, HPLC and a cell culture. 3 wide-field fluorescence microscopes with single molecule sensitivity. 1 FACS.

Key scientific staff

Dr. F. Kienberger / AFM
Prof. P. Hinterdorfer / AFM
Prof. H. Gruber / Chemistry
Prof. V. Pastuhsenko / Theory