Víctor García Gisbert defends his PhD Thesis at ICMM: "We've proved our microscope can measure stuff that were not possible before"

September is college's new year, but some people are ending their season. That is the case of Víctor García Gisbert, who is defending his Ph.D. thesis 'High Spatial Resolution Nanomechanical Mapping of Materials: From Proteins to Magnetic Media' at Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM-CSIC) on 1st September. The show will be at 4 pm (Spanish peninsular time). It can be watched via zoom.

García Gisbert has done his thesis focused on the development of atomic force microscopy techniques. The aim is to measure nanoscale samples. This scientific has worked with Ricardo García's group 'Advanced force microscopy and nanolithography (ForceTool)' for five years and now he feels proud to have finished his thesis and to have achieved a great scientific goal: "We have developed the technique, we have shown that the microscope is able to measure things that were not possible before," he says.

Explained to a non-scientific audience, he clarifies the atomic force microscope uses a tiny sharp point with which the surface of materials can be measured with nanometer resolution, that is, one billionth of a meter. "The sharp point has a radius of only a few nanometers, so we can touch the surface of these materials and measure interactions that cannot be measured with other types of microscope," he says.

During his years at the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid, this young researcher has studied what new methods this microscope can have and how this can be used to measure the mechanical properties of biological forces. Specifically, it has developed new methods to measure the mechanical properties of proteins, collagen, or lipids. With his technique, he has been able to see how the mechanical properties of certain substances change over time. This is the case, for example, of collagen: they have observed how it becomes tougher as it evolves over time.

"The method that existed before could measure mechanical properties with a resolution of one minute, that is, one image per minute; now we can measure several images per second, with which we have improved the technique by 100 compared to previous results," he says proudly.

The future? "The idea is that once we have developed the technique we can use it in other samples with more advanced biological interest," he explains. Meanwhile, this Thursday he will defend his thesis with the pride of having achieved a scientific breakthrough that "will define the future development of atomic force microscopy."

-- Ángela R. Bonachera - ICMM Communication --