Correction to: Binding mechanism of anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drug mitoxantrone to DNA characterized by magnetic tweezers.

Following publication of this article [1] we found a typographical error in the results reported in the abstract. The corrected sentences should read as below.

Binding mechanism of anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drug mitoxantrone to DNA characterized by magnetic tweezers.

Background: Chemotherapeutic agents (anti-cancer drugs) are small cytostatic or cytotoxic molecules that often bind to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) resulting in modifications of their structural and nanomechanical properties and thus interfering with the cell proliferation process.

Methods: We investigated the anthraquinone compound mitoxantrone that is used for treating certain cancer types like leukemia and lymphoma with magnetic tweezers as a single molecule nanosensor. In order to study the association of mitoxantrone with dsDNA, we conducted force-extension and mechanical overwinding experiments with a sensitivity of 10 N.

Binding mechanism of PicoGreen to DNA characterized by magnetic tweezers and fluorescence spectroscopy.

Fluorescent dyes are broadly used in many biotechnological applications to detect and visualize DNA molecules. However, their binding to DNA alters the structural and nanomechanical properties of DNA and, thus, interferes with associated biological processes. In this work we employed magnetic tweezers and fluorescence spectroscopy to investigate the binding of PicoGreen to DNA at room temperature in a concentration-dependent manner.

Systems nanobiology: from quantitative single molecule biophysics to microfluidic-based single cell analysis.

Detailed and quantitative information about structure-function relation, concentrations and interaction kinetics of biological molecules and subcellular components is a key prerequisite to understand and model cellular organisation and temporal dynamics. In systems nanobi-ology, cellular processes are quantitatively investigated at the sensitivity level of single molecules and cells. This approach provides direct access to biomolecular information without being statistically ensemble-averaged, their associated distribution functions, and possible subpopulations.

Multifocal two-photon laser scanning microscopy combined with photo-activatable GFP for in vivo monitoring of intracellular protein dynamics in real time.

We used multifocal two-photon laser scanning microscopy for local and selective protein activation and quantitative investigation of intracellular protein dynamics. The localized activation was realized with photo-activatable green-fluorescent-proteins (pa-GFP) and optical two-photon excitation in order to investigate the real-time intracellular dynamics in vivo. Such processes are of crucial importance for a deep understanding and modelling of regulatory and metabolic processes in living cells.