ch. 1. Observing the nanoscale organization of model biological membranes by atomic force microscopy / Pierre-Emmanuel Milhiet and Christian Le Grimellec -- ch. 2. High-resolution atomic force microscopy of native membranes / Nikohy Buzhynskyy ... [et al.] -- ch. 3. Microbial cell imaging using atomic force microscopy / Mitchel J. Doktycz ... [et al.] -- ch. 4. Resolving the high-resolution architecture, assembly and functional repertoire of bacterial systems by in vitro atomic force microscopy / Alexander J. Malkin -- ch. 5. Understanding cell secretion and membrane fusion processes on the nanoscale using the atomic force microscope / Bhanu P. Jena -- ch. 6. Nanophysiology of cells, channels and nuclear pores / Hermann Schillers, Hans Oberleithner and Victor Shahin -- ch. 7. Topography and recognition imaging of cells / Lilia Chtcheglova, Linda Wildling and Peter Hinterdorfer -- ch. 8. High-speed atomic force microscopy for dynamic biological imaging / Takayuki Uchihashi and Toshio Ando -- ch. 9. Near-field scanning optical microscopy of biological membranes / Thomas S. van Zanten and Maria F. Garcia-Parajo -- ch. 10. Quantifying cell adhesion using single-cell force spectroscopy / Anna Taubenberger, Jens Friedrichs and Daniel J. Mutter -- ch. 11. Probing cellular adhesion at the single-molecule level / F���elix Rico, Xiaohui Zhang and Vincent T. Moy -- ch. 12. Mapping membrane proteins on living cells using the atomic force microscope / Atsushi Ikai and Rehana Afrin -- ch. 13. Probing bacterial adhesion using force spectroscopy / Terri A. Camesano -- ch. 14. Force spectroscopy of mineral-microbe bonds / Brian H. Lower and Steven K. Lower -- ch. 15. Single-molecule force spectroscopy of microbial cell envelope proteins / Claire Verbelen ... [et al.] -- ch. 16. Probing the nanomechanical properties of viruses, cells and cellular structures / Sandor Kasas and Giovanni Dietler -- ch. 17. Label-free monitoring of cell signalling processes through AFM-based force measurements / Charles M. Cuerrier ... [et al.] -- ch. 18. Investigating mammalian cell nanomechanics with simultaneous optical and atomic force microscopy / Yaron R. Silberberg, Louise Guolla and Andrew E. Felling -- ch. 19. The role of atomic force microscopy in advancing diatom research into the nanotechnology era / Michael Higgins and Richard Wetherbee -- ch. 20. Atomic force microscopy for medicine / Shivani Sharma and James K. Gimzewski.