Visualization of DNA-Protein Complexes using Atomic Force Microscopy

Nowadays, it's been given increased attention to biological molecules, such as proteins in our bodies and DNA, because of their structural features, physical properties and interactions with other molecules, when viewed as nano-structures. In our research we focus our attention on DNA-Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) interactions and different ways of visualizing these complexes and characterize their physical properties using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as our main tool. The final purpose of this analysis is to identify specific interactions among LDL's and DNA that may help us unveil the possibility of using these LDL-DNA complexes as natural vectors for gene expression.