Microscopic approaches to dynamics and structure of biological motors

It has become increasingly clear that the interior of biological cells, the cytoplasm, is intricately organized and ordered by complex networks of protein polymers and membranes. Transport processes, as well as large-scale mechanical processes, are driven within cells by a multitude of motor proteins interacting with these networks. New experimental techniques are now making it possible to directly observe the molecular dynamic processes at the basis of this machinery, and a detailed understanding of the parts of the machinery is emerging. Elementary displacements and forces produced by single molecules have been observed for several motor proteins.