Study on elastic modulus of individual ferritin

The mechanical property of individual ferritin was measured with force-volume mapping (FV) under contact mode of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in this work. The elastic modulus of individual ferritin was estimated by the Hertz mode. The estimated value of the elastic modulus of individual ferritin was about 250–800 MPa under a small deformation. In addition, the elastic modulus of individual ferritin was compared with that of the colloid gold nanoparticle. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10604034), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. Y606309), Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2006A610046) and K. C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University