Simon SCHEURING
Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Weill Cornell Medicine, USA

High-Speed Atomic Force Microscopy:
A Forceful Tool for Molecular Biophysics

Contact : sis2019 [at sign] med.cornell.edu
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Simon SCHEURING
Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine, USA

High-speed atomic force microscopy (HS-AFM)[1] is a powerful technique that

Research Interests

provides dynamic movies of biomolecules at work. HS-AFM has the notable

Membrane protein, Structure, Conformational changes, Atomic Force Microscopy, Force Spectroscopy

environmental cues such as changes of pH, ions, ligands, temperature, light andadvantage that it per mits to subject the proteins under investigation toforce. This is particularly advantageous for the study of ion channels that respondto a wide range of stimuli [2], and transporters with substrate-dependent activities.

Education Professional Career

To break current temporal limitations to characterize molecular dynamics using HS-

1997 - 2001

PhD thesis: Summa cum laude, Biozentrum, University Basel, Switzerland(HS-AFM-HS), a technique whereby we oscillate the HS-AFM tip at a fixed position

2001 - 2003
2004 - 2007

Postdocs: University Basel, Switzerland (2001), Institut Curie, Paris, France (2002, 2003)

2001 - 2005
2007 - 2012

Habilitation (HDR), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6, Jussieu, Paris, France

2010 - 2011

Director INSERM U1006, Institut Curie, Paris, France

2012 - 2016

DR1 INSERM – Senior Research Director, INSERM

2012 - 20162017 - present

Director INSERM U1006, INSERM/Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France

CR2 INSERM – Researcher, Institut Curie, Paris, France

us to determine the dynamics of individual unlabeled amino acid transporters atmillisecond temporal resolution [4].

HS-AFM frames and schematic of aminoacid transporter GltPh in membrane.

Top: HS-AFM line scanning kymograph with 3.3ms temporal resolution of GltPh transport motion.
Bottom: Height/time trace and idealized state assignment (red).

Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine, Anesthesiology, Physiology & Biophysics, NY, USA

References

Atomic Force Microscopy application and development[ 1 ] A high-speed atomic force microscope for studying biological macromolecules, PNAS, 2001, 98(22):12468-12472,
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.211400898, Toshio Ando, Noriyuki Kodera, Eisuke Takai, Daisuke Maruyama, Kiwamu Saito,
and Akitoshi TodaHonors
2019 - 2024
2012 - 20172006 - 2010

and detect the motions of the molecules under the tip [3]. These methods allowed

DR2 INSERM – Junior Research Director

Scientific Activities
1995 - present

AFM, we use HS-AFM line scanning (HS-AFM-LS) and HS-AFM height spectroscopy

NIH Director's Pioneer Award (DP1)ERC Starting/Consolidator Grant 2012
INSERM Avenir 2005 Program Awardee

Publications
Millisecond dynamics of an unlabeled amino acid transporter, Nature Communications, 2020, 11(5016), doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18811-z, TR

1. Matin#, GR Heath#, GHM Huysmans, O Boudker & S Scheuring[ 2 ] Force-induced conformational changes in Piezo1, Nature, 2019, 573(7773):230–234, doi. 10.1038/s41586-0191499-2, Yi-Chih Lin, Yusong R Guo, Atsushi Miyagi, Jesper Levring, Roderick MacKinnon & Simon Scheuring[ 3 ] High-Speed AFM Height Spectroscopy (HS-AFM-HS): Microsecond dynamics of unlabeled biomolecules, Nature
Communications, 2018, 9(1):4983. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07512-3, George Heath & Simon Scheuring[ 4 ] Millisecond dynamics of an unlabeled amino acid transporter, Nature Communications, 2020, 11(5016), doi.
org/10.1038/s41467-020-18811-z, Tina R Matin, George R Heath, Gerard HM Huysmans, Olga Boudker & Simon
Scheuring

Force-induced conformational changes in Piezo1, Nature, 2019, 573(7773):230–234, doi. 10.1038/s41586-019-1499-2, Y-C Lin#, YR Guo#, A Miyagi, J

2. Levring, R MacKinnon* & S Scheuring

High-Speed AFM Height Spectroscopy (HS-AFM-HS): Microsecond dynamics of unlabeled biomolecules, Nature Communications, 2018, 9(1):4983.

3. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07512-3, GR Heath & S Scheuring

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