Chemspy chemistry news and views

A shiny new tool for imaging biomolecules - Berkeley Lab researchers have developed a technique for lacing artificial membranes with billions of gold nanoantennas that can boost optical signals from a protein tens of thousands of times without the protein ever being touched. This technique could provide a critical tool in the fight against a wide range of health problems including cancer. Reference: J. Groves et al, "Single Molecule Tracking on Supported Membranes with Arrays of Optical Nanoantennas", Nano Lett., 2012, 12 (3), pp 1717–1721
DOI: 10.1021/nl300294b