Physical Chemistry, Nanoscience and Living Cells

He received the prize, which is only awarded in 2009, for his scientific contributions to physical chemistry and nano-biotechnology. The progress made by his team over the past ten years owe a lot to the development of the atomic force microscope, because the instrument allows to analyse the individual molecules on the surface of living cells. 
Simultaneously Yves Dufrêne has co-published, together with a foreign colleague, an article in Nature Chemical Biology, a journal which takes stock of the progress made over the past few years in this field. They explain how the measuring of piconewton-scale (i.e. very small) forces enables researchers to better understand how living cells interact with their environment and thus to find out more about the molecular causes of certain illnesses.