Laboratório de Microscopia de Força Atómica e Técnicas Relacionadas

Our main area of research is condensed matter physics, including soft matter, molecular biology, fluidics, magnetism, tribology and several other domains, at the nanoscale. Supported in the BioISI framework, as well as in an FCT-funded research project, we have dedicated ourselves to study the mechanisms behind many biological phenomena at the nanoscale. Particularly, we are interested in studying

the effects of stress and mutations on the mechanical properties of different biological systems, including pollen tubes, Saccharomyces cerevisiae or human cells, among others. We are also involved in studying specific protein-protein interactions, as well as studying the aggregation mechanisms of different proteins. Besides the bio-oriented research, we also have deep interests in studying other condensed matter systems at the nanoscale. We have dedicated ourselves to the study of capillary interactions, as well as nanofriction and nanofluidics. To be able to perform the above research, we also focus on the design of new, custom-made instruments, capable of performing experiments the conventional AFM cannot perform such as the Force Feedback Microscope.